Back in 1999 when Honda introduced the S2000 roadster, the Japanese company brought new customers to the brand, while seriously boosting its reputation. Alas, while the S2K was a hit, it didn’t manage to dethrone more or less direct rivals from Porsche or Mazda’s MX-5 Miata, which are still on the market. And while this digital proposal seems to think the S2000 should join the Porsche (Cayman) it couldn’t beat, there’s more to the work than that.
Sure, the S2000 and the Cayman have been involved in multiple driving comparos over the years, while a few eccentric owners sometimes swap features between the two models (e.g., Porsche paint for the Honda). But while the real-world link between the front-engined Japanese roadster and the German midship coupe ends there, this rendering brings them together. And digital artist Henry Andrus (aka photo.chopshop) seems to have come up with a stable mix.
Looking past the eye candy, the enthusiast’s pixel effort makes us think of how Honda missed out on an opportunity with the S2K and how the carmaker could fix that with an electric revival, But first, it’s time to see what the Japanese carmaker lost be keeping its sports car on the bench for so many years now.
When the S2000 was born, the first iteration of Porsche’s modern mid-engined sportscar, the (986) Boxster had already enjoyed three years on the market. The German roadster’s Cayman coupe sibling would only arrive for the following generation (987) in 2005, being built through 2012, a full seven years after the Honda’s retirement.
And while we’ve had nothing more than concepts and rumors on the topic of an S2K comeback meanwhile, Porsche has graced us with two additional iterations of its mid-engined brothers, the 2012-2016 981 and the 2016-born 718 Cayman/Boxster that are still in production.
An electric future for the S2000 sounds like a winning recipe
More importantly for the revival point being made here, Porsche is already hard at work preparing the EV survival of the said sports cars. Last year, the Germans introduced the Mission R, an all-electric sports car concept—a running prototype—whose dual motors give the beast a whopping 1,073 hp (1,088 PS). And, earlier this year, the carmaker brought the show car one step closer to production. We’re talking about the 718 Cayman GT4 ePerformance. You can regard this as a detailed preview for an all-electric race car expected to hit the market in 2025.
Some journos have already driven it (you’ll find British car hero Chris Harris manhandling the electric beast in the YouTube vid below). And the whole world is set to watch the production 718 Cayman GT4 chassis-based prototype proving itself later this week at the 2022 Goodwood Festival of Speed, which is loaded with vicious EVs.
Returning to Honda, the removal of the Clarity EV back in 2020 means the carmaker currently offers no battery-powered vehicles in North America. Japanese and European customers do enjoy the cute, RWD battery-electric supermini that is the Honda E, though.
And, to also include the Miata in this argument for S2000 electrification, Mazda’s roadster has proven that sometimes smaller is better (since 1989). So why wouldn’t we dream of Honda using its proven abilities to deliver a dynamic, reliable S2000 EV at a price point that could bring one to many enthusiasts’ driveways?