Need For Speed Dream to Reality in a Honda S2000 Project

I remember the days when I’d race to my mate’s house from school, so that we could play the brand new Gran Turismo 2 on his Playstation 1. 

We were truly addicted to racing by the time that Need For Speed Underground came out, and by the time Paul Walker asked a guy in a Ferrari “What’s the retail on one of those?” and Johnny Tran beat Jesse’s Jetta in his Honda S2000, I knew I needed to build one of these dream cars one day.

As games evolved and modifying cars in video games became a part-time hobby, I was set on owning my very own Honda S2000, with that high-revving, hair-raising induction scream all the way up to 9,000RPM. But, it would have to wait until my 30’s before I was able to take the plunge into the bottomless pit of building a project car.

Fast Forward. It was a cold winter’s day on 20th December 2020 – during lockdown – when I had found the cheapest Honda S2000 in Europe, a EUR9,000 (~$10,500) RHD import from the UK. I had saved up just enough to be able to buy it, and I thought this would be the start of my dream car ownership.

Little did I know that only a few weeks later, with one track day at Zandvoort circuit and a photo shoot under my belt, that my dream car would have the lights knocked out of it – quite literally.

It was at that moment that I had to make a decision, as the insurance payout was only 70% of what I had paid for the S2000. I chose of course to buy the car back from the insurance and started a re-build series on YouTube, documenting every step of the process of the rebuild, which took me 3 years in total. The project S2000 series can be found on my YouTube channel @DutchmanSeb.

Now, I won’t take all the glory in building a dream S2000, as it really takes a lot of people and a lot of hours to build a dream car. Jan & Daan, owners of Next Level Automotive (NLA) in the Netherlands specialize in such restoration projects, particularly in 90’s JDM classics.

They helped to completely strip down the car to bare chassis, sending it off to have the front end damage repaired by Luc at Custom Car Welding, who rebuilt the entire left front end from a donor shell, cutting, drilling out and welding each piece in one at a time until it looked OEM.

Then it was back to NLA for paint and body work. I had the body panels sourced by ShowoffImports from J’s Racing in Japan; a GT bodykit, a Mooncraft Hardtop from Spoon Sports, a 1800mm GT spoiler from Seibon, GT wing mirrors from APR, lightweight doors from Aeroworks and from Aerodynamics, Mugen Hood – all in carbon fibre – and many other parts including full Hard Race adjustable camber control arms, toe arm, links, bump steer kit, extended ball joints and struts, engine, differential and gearbox mounts.

Not to mention all newly galvanized hardware for the entire car.

Once all the paint and body work was done, it was time to re-assemble every single part, including a full engine rebuild which called for Honda S2000 specialist Daan from Delta Lima Engineering.

He had the F20C engine re-sleeved and rebuilt with all fresh OEM parts, as well as ACL race bearings, an ARP head stud kit, and every part ultrasonic cleaned and refit onto the block.

He rebuilt all the hubs and knuckles with new paint, bearings, ball joints, extended studs, powder coated the subframes and put each and every nut and bolt back onto the car – with new fuel and brake lines – until the turn of the key sent vibrations running through my beautifully rebuilt Honda.

Now, I can finally say I have ticked off that box, with my dream to reality made possible by all the wonderful people who helped me. Thanks most of all to my patient wife, who survived me spending every weekend for three years in the garage working on my project.