Larry Chen: The Type R That Honda Never Built: Evasive Motorsport’s S2000 R Video

Larry Chen Video Transcript

Mmm Hey everyone Larry Chen here we are at evasive Motorsport we got Mike here and he’s going to show us the s2000r hey how’s it going guys you guys did what Honda did not do and finally here it is after years of development I am so blown away there’s no other way

To put it what was the original idea behind this car we’re all Honda fans we all own the Honda we all actually had acid thousands here you know everyone at the shop so Type R as we know it’s like the epitome of Honda is racing version of their streetcar which is that how

Come they never made it for the S2000 and uh it’s just something that you know it was a it was a idea that came about just over dinner one day I was like we should just make one since you know modernize uh the S2000 give it a new

Engine just give it a lot of things that wouldn’t exist before and then uh this is what we come up with so this is so incredible I mean you’ve gone so deep into it I mean this is essentially a brand new car yeah yeah the whole car was uh stripped

Down to chassis everything’s painted from you know from bare bone chassis all the panels have been replaced fenders Hood trunk everything is just all Composites all carbon fiber so just trying to save weight and then uh yeah everything everything has been refreshed so essentially it’s like a new car yeah

Because you really wanted to take on that R badge like it it needed to be like a true R if Honda actually made it exactly exactly I have so many questions but let’s just start from the outside um you mentioned a lot of this stuff is composite carbon yeah let’s start at the

Bumper yeah so the bumper is actually OEM Factory Honda it’s Honda access Japan they recently they released the bumper for 20th anniversary of the S2000 and so this is that bumper and when they came out I was like this is perfect this is OEM quality it’s your thing and it

Kind of there’s a there’s meaning behind it because it is celebrating 20 years of Honda S2000 so we took the bumper we added the front lip and the fender extension the fender has been widening about 30 millimeters on each side but we didn’t want to leave that Gap

Here so we kind of filled the spot with the extension right here oh so you guys actually just yeah yeah exactly without it it will have kind of like a it kind of goes in right here so carbon fenders yeah wider uh who makes those fenders

It’s just it was made in the house yeah it’s one off for this yeah nobody does this no yeah so every arrow part on this car is it’s made just for this car so unbelievable what about the hood the Hood’s actually a Asm dry carbon hood it’s really really nice nicely built so

And this is actually built with the intention of having a certain exactly for like historical style intake without this it wouldn’t clear yeah so yeah we’ll we’ll take a look at that afterwards but this is super super nice doors Factory modifications yeah doors are Factory um we can talk about

Interior later but the mirrors are from spoon it’s kind of like the perfect shape and the style we want to go for so there’s really no need to make something one off which is there’s spoon Sports mirrors very JDM yeah and then the rear fender rear this is all Factory it’s all

Factory all Factory the wing is uh s2000r Wing it’s actually produced by voltex Japan and we customize it to fit this dry carbon trunk this trunk is actually pre-drilled for Wing mounts in this location and it’s reinforced underneath so I mean if you want to take a look at it

This is this is really really yeah and then we also wanted to make sure that it looks Factory with no like exposed Hardware so it’s just you know a lot of guys made all this this is all yeah this is all main house yeah so

Wow yeah so you see the trunk is made for this exact Wing mounting location this is so premium who makes this this is also ASM actually so cool yeah it’s ASM dry carbon incredible yeah so then it’s wider in the front but not wider in

The back yeah yeah so you know uh we we’ve been tuning yesterday for a while so what most people do is they want to square out the car a factory s2000s come with a stagger setup so it’s narrow in the front wider in the back but for performance it just ultimately like to

Turn in of a better turn in people want to go wider wheels in the front that’s why we Square the car out make it wider in the front and keep the same width in the back okay so let’s talk about the wheels so now it’s a square set up then

Yeah yeah so the wheels are they’re 18 by nine all around these wheels are actually made by our friends at Titan seven they’re forged these are actually the EVS tuning 52r wheels and these are made specially for this car because they actually have your logo yeah yeah it’s

An ABS tuning so these are made specifically for this car to clear the Brembo calipers front and back while retaining this Factory kind of fitment and it’s body matched yeah yeah it just it looks so good it looks Honda premium oh yeah yeah I think because you guys custom made all of them

Exactly yeah yeah and this is all color matched to the car so this is all everything he’s done Championship white which is what Honda has been known for white wheels on a white car yeah it looks so good front the the brakes are huge it seems like it

Barely clears yeah yeah the the clearance is very tight so is this something that you’re gonna offer for sale or is this something that’s just going to come on so we do have a line of 52r wheels for the S2000 but not in this specific uh application this is kind of

Exclusive for the 2000 r because it goes with these brakes yeah and it’s made just to clear these brakes and actually fit you know within these fenders yeah so good okay let’s take a look at the engine bay that way we can talk about the engine and the exhaust and

Everything that you guys have done to make this an updated for 2023 Market incredible sports car there’s just so much to unpackage right now so what are we looking at here so this is a K20 C1 which is the fk8 factory engine turbocharged on the factory engine it makes about stock it

Makes about 306 horsepower with almost 300 pounds of torque which as we know that’s like a big increase from what a stock S2000 output is Our intention is to put it in here but not make it look like it was aftermarket it wanted to make it look as Factory as

Possible so so then what did you have to do because this motor was never meant to be mounted this way exactly yeah so obviously we had to do custom bell housing custom starter like a lot of like even the down pipe everything has to be custom fabricated because a lot of

Times these exhaust is the way it’s routed it’s just not meant for a rear-wheel drive car so we use the adapter we’re using a factory uh still a six-speed transmission from the S2000 custom engine mounts intake manifold has to be custom made because the stock engine the throttle

Body is on the back on this side so this we have to turn everything over to face this way so yeah and obviously tuning wise we’re using a motec m142 for this it’s a direct injection engine so it’s kind of a plug and play with motex so it

Runs really well it’s interesting that the hood is made this clearance just for this intake I mean just that much room I guess makes that big of a difference huh because it’s taking fresh air yeah not from the fender or anything it’s taking it from the front bumper some bumper

Yeah yeah actually the area goes up here and it feeds right oh cool yeah I absolutely love it so then does this make stock power is this all stock everything yeah so right now it’s on a stock tune so on our Dyno I actually put

Down 300 to the wheels which is a lot on the Mustang dyno we have plans in the future to actually add a sports mode uh button in the car so if you actually turn into sport mode it will up the boost increase uh steering sensitivity

Just like what a modern car could do so we we have plans to do that and then so what’s the point of this what’s the point of building this is this something you wanted to exercise just to show that you can do this or is this something you actually want to sell

I think it really is to get an idea off the ground and see if we can actually do it but the idea is to offer it to our customers I think there is a there’s definitely a demand for this type of car we’ve seen a lot of Resto mods done with

911s and you know many other high-end European cars but I think with the S2000 there’s such a cult following for this car and then like me myself want to see if if one day you know I grew up I sell my S2000 I have you know I have I have

Everything I want but I want an S2000 again I wish somebody would do a rest of my version of this and so I could just buy it right you know so because a lot of people that maybe liked us 2000s back then when it was brand new couldn’t

Afford them yeah because they weren’t of age yet yeah and then now potentially if they’re a car enthusiast or a Honda Enthusiast now they can afford something this nice right right have you figured out how much something like this would cost uh we have an idea but right now

We’re it literally the car just got billed so there’s a lot of details we’re still trying to work out and every day we’re still making changes to the cars so I think I think we’ll have pricing probably in the next few months but right now it’s just we’re still

Literally in the Prototype phase though I’m so curious okay all right yeah that’s good to know but it’s just so cool so did you have to do anything because I’m guessing the motor itself is it sitting exactly where the F series usually sits yeah yeah oh really close actually so the S2000 if

You you know for the people that don’t know the S2000 engine actually sat behind the front axle so it’s technically like a mid-engine car and that’s why the car was so balanced the weight distribution the handling so we’re trying to keep that same amount of location for the engine so you can see

It’s it’s literally right behind the front axle line so we do have to notch the firewall slightly just because there’s stuff here that’s like in the way the engine does it a little bit higher but overall it’s basically the same location was this a pretty good donor car to

Start with it has some miles on it yeah I think as long as the chassis is straight and there’s no accidents we can you know we can turn into something like this because everything has been replaced anyway so the car was a was a yellow s20004

It actually been tracked a lot so yeah so we you know everything get gets replaced anyway so it doesn’t really matter and then the the way the downpipe routes yeah the exhaust all of that is that something that you had to really battle to get it to work oh for sure yeah so

Down pipe actually goes down it actually crosses over under the oil pan to on this side yeah so it goes under the oil pan and then exit so we have to use a round tube into an oval to go under the oil pan or else it would be there will

Be clearance issues and then once it goes over then we can go back to around and then to the cat and then to the exhaust huh yeah because this has never been used in a rear wheel drive car yeah yeah no no not really yeah a lot of

People have done like k24s and other engines but K20 hmm that is so cool um and then updating the cooling system all of that is kind of updated yeah for this motor package yeah so we meet so there’s a you can’t see it but there’s

An oil cooler how you see it from the front and then the intercooler yeah intercooler oil cooler and the radiator so the cooling the way the S2000 is laid out is actually really efficient a lot of you get a lot of airflow whereas in the FKA a stock Civic type bar has

Cooling issues because everything is stacked so close and there’s not much airflow so we’re able to take advantage of the way S2000 there’s so much space here that we could just you know put coolers separately and direct air to it so and then so why this motor number one

It’s a Type R engine so it’s a true type yeah yeah so it has to be a type if you can’t call it a s2000r without a Type R engine from Honda got it so and this is the only modern Type R engine that’s available so there’s it’s kind of a no-brainer

There’s there’s really no other that makes so much sense okay let’s talk about the interior there’s there’s a lot to unpack on this one the seats absolutely incredible it matches the theme so well so did you work with Recaro on getting these customers these are actually off the

Shelf Recaro Podium seats when I first saw them release I was like this is perfect for this car it’s uh it has the right color and you know it’s just it’s just modern it’s full carbon shell you already have red interior in here was this is this all new or did you have

To get all new panels from Honda uh no these are just uh OEM but we got a upholsterer in Alcantara there’s a few you know a few little details like this is a this is a FKA uh Mugen shift knob so we put that in here the steering wheel steering wheel yeah

It’s Momo and then we have the this is the nsxr horn button oh cool yeah amazing I I have to say also you went out of your way to update the the logo too right S2000 and then you added them yeah the r the actual R is from the

Civic Type R so kind of combine the two logos into s2000r yeah so then it is there a top here anymore or did you take that out no so underneath is all gutted I wanted the car to be still a roadster I feel like this is the true Spirit of a

Honda S2000 is top down we do have a hardtop that’s optional that you can put on but I think you get the most enjoyment with no top and driving around like this right yeah yeah if you want to start it so we can see the like that is

So cool that you went out of your way to design that logo yeah it kind of for people who don’t know how to start a car that’s that is so cool so then it’s the normal start button yeah yeah so that’s the FKA Dash pretty much identical to a Civic type

Part right you wanted to recreate it exactly yeah because that’s all customizable yeah and it’s not like super loud or anything no it’s like an fk8 right right right right I think the whole idea is not to make it so uh aftermarket or two tuner feeling I wanted to be like OEM but like extreme OEM plus so that’s that’s kind of the concept behind it so everything is kind of like mellow but modified yeah but underneath it it’s a brand new car

Completely yeah yeah ground nut build yeah like all the suspension bushings everything is brand new like all obviously the damper we have the KW Club sport it’s custom valve to the car new bushings we have sway bars we have all the suspension bits and pieces of the

Stuff that we kind of figured out setting up these cars for the past 15 20 years all these little tricks that has been applied to the car so the handling is like on point uh tell me about the exhaust it looks great yeah so it’s a it’s a custom

Exhaust built by origin Fab full titanium 70 millimeters all the way back it has a really nice exhaust note to it no drone so how has the feedback been since you guys announced this project honestly it’s been it’s been overwhelming yeah I think the feedback is just

A lot of positive comments at the same time there’s a lot of people saying hey you should have kept the n a engine but that’s not what we’re going for we’re going for a modern version of the S2000 so and I think with the K20 C1 it’s the

Clear Choice it just has more power and more torque and it’s factory so all right so you’ve been in the industry for so many years and you obviously know people that work at Honda has anybody at Honda reached out to you about this um you know I’ve talked to people from uh HPD

Actually they will be at we’re having an unveiling event they will they’re they’re probably going to be there I’m curious to see what they think about this project so yeah yeah it’s funny because who knows maybe there was a reason why they didn’t make a Type R

Yeah but the fact that you took it upon yourself to do it yeah I think it’s pretty darn cool honestly yeah and I think there’s still uh there’s still a lot of interest for a two-door sports car these days you know like these days a lot of focus has been

On practical sedans that are you know performance driven sedans but like two-door roadsters and just these type of cars just there’s a special place for them for people you know is this a lot lighter than a stock S2000 or yeah yeah I would say it’s lighter

For sure because we don’t have the soft top and we replace you know obviously the trunk is carbon we have all these carbon panels you see it’s probably a little seats seats yeah so I would say it’s probably about a couple hundred pounds lighter than the stock has 2000.

This kind of honestly came out of the blue for me because you know I’ve been following you guys for a while and I see a lot of the projects that you guys do including dyes Pikes Peak effort that you guys have covered for so many years are supported but this is something how

Long did it actually take for you to get to this point with this vehicle you know the the car the project started probably 2019. that’s when we got donor car it’s just been a long process is because we had all these race programs we have customers cars to work on it wasn’t like

A hundred percent focused on building this car but whatever chance we get we would add things to it you know refine it we would make changes to it so it took it took about three to four years to get to this point so it’s been a while

I’m assuming now that you’ve done it one time it probably won’t take that long to build another one yeah and I think we could you know if we were to build the next one would be actually much better too because we learn a lot on the process we could you know make things

More efficient just do things a lot better yeah amazing well thank you so much for showing it to me unfortunately today we can’t drive it because it’s prepped and all ready for the show but um after the show after they release it you guys will

See this pretty much as soon as the show happens I can come back and actually take a ride in it or drive it but it just looks so good and I’ve actually never seen this bumper on a U.S car yet I haven’t seen it and obviously Honda hasn’t forgotten about the car because

They’re still making new parts for it like the bumper yeah well the bumper is actually discontinued they released it for like a very short period of time and they just cut it off so that’s probably why you don’t really see them often you have to hoard that

Bump you have to find them you have to find all yeah we do actually have some on the shelf that we’re holding for that exact reason yeah cool well thanks for showing it to us yeah good luck hopefully you can build a lot of these yeah thank you I wanted to ask

You a couple questions okay I die what’s up good to see you good to see you of course you’re here as always yeah yeah your your Pikes Peak program is based out of invasive Motorsports and uh yeah we we always have a really good time following you at Pikes Peak and

Whether you’re driving electric car or internal combustion vehicle but this year you’re actually driving an S2000 yep going back through the gas gas power I’m excited I can’t wait to see you too so uh that car is actually being worked on inside and it’s going to be released

At the event so I’ll be posting a bunch of that stuff on my Instagram but let’s talk about this this is such an interesting thing you’re you’re a big Honda guy you you love Hondas you race Hondas yeah I wouldn’t say I’m a big

Honda guy but I do happen to drive a lot of hunters and now I’m getting into it yeah but you’ve also won a lot of races in Hondas yeah with the spoon Sports and yeah you’re just around it a lot what do you think about this build well so first

Of all it’s 2000 is one of my favorite like a truck car right it’s very good hungering you know like it’s very balanced car but if you want to go faster the power is not enough and then I think they’re making that program fixed with the is I mean the FKA Type R

Engine right so with this weight and the 300 horsepower is like perfect perfect yeah because you have a similar build right at your 86 your 86 your Toyota uh a86 has the same engine right and it that one is actually is that actually tuned up more or does that

Make no it’s the same thing because the car my concept is the stock so you don’t have to be like high maintenance right the stock should be like last whatever right so that was my point and 86 is a Light chassis right it’s like 2200 or something so 300 horsepower is more than

Enough to have a good time with it and you actually had a chance to drive this what did you I did what did you think so it’s exactly the same right like lightweight with the you know perfect horsepower but this one built much nicer to be honest the body is more stiff because

It’s a newer chassis and then they did you know a lot of cool stuff on the on the back side so it really like kind of reminds me like an sxr you know what I mean like yeah I see what you mean yeah like uh but it’s everything works everything all of it

Works like all of the electronics headlights everything I mean a lot of times when you do motor swaps you know you use a lot of things my 86 is like that too it’s okay because your 86 is really fast and fun to drive yeah but

This will be yeah the goal right like AC works and everything works oh this has air conditioning yes everything’s works that’s incredible I think so right does the air conditioning work yeah it’s not filled and what what is the air conditioning off of oh you didn’t have to save any F-series stuff

What about that condenser S2000 condenser uh all K series everything else AC yeah all of it works that’s really important so basically this is the perfect street car but you can take it to the track as well but my 86 is only for the track no AC no

Power steering right but this has like all the com comfortable stuff but you can drive out the truck and you can go really quick too so it’s like a dream car man I love it that’s awesome good job guys good job I can’t wait to drive it okay [Applause]

I’m gonna do like a Larry’s take on this right so Lewis is doing some b-roll and he’s shooting it but I just kind of wanted to talk about prices right Mike and the guys they don’t know exactly how much they’re gonna charge for this but my best guess honestly

Is going to be about two hundred thousand dollars because you look at what s2000s are selling for and you look at something like a CR which is the top of the line S2000 you see them go for over a hundred hundred and thirty thousand easy right and then that’s for a used one

This is a brand new vehicle now with zero miles right and then you want to just add up the parts okay so like the seats alone four thousand dollars each the wheels who knows I have five thousand dollars forged wheels you want to talk about the motec system

That’s 20 grand right there the hood and the trunk that’s seven thousand dollars just for those it adds up so quick and one of the things that Mike was saying off camera is that all of the original S2000 Clips rubber trim all of the little things that they actually put

Together that adds up because it’s from Honda original OEM and they still make them and if they don’t make them it’s New Old Stock which makes it even more expensive just the suspension alone I know the kw’s club sports could be ten thousand dollars specked out custom

Just price alone like just just the things that I see oh I’m not even mentioning the brakes the brakes who knows how much those things are it’s all premium parts and it’s a lot of Labor and a lot of research that went into making this work

So that’s my best guess I mean maybe you guys can tell me I’m wrong or whatever but yeah that that just seems like how much the market is going for with these really custom cars hey thanks for watching if you want to support us directly go to larrychenprince.com I

Print and sign every single one of these this is the perfect gift or it’s the perfect piece of art for your wall oh [Applause]