2003 Honda S2000
A Honda S2000 is a rare sighting in Atlantic Canada. Even more rare is one in Grand Prix white.
We spotted the elegant open-top roadster against the stark ocean-smoothed rocks of Peggy’s Cove.
Owner Gilles Nault is friendly with an easy-going manner. He’s had the 2003 S2000 for six years. It has 241,000 kilometres on the odometer. That’s because between April and October, it’s his daily driver. It has a perfect tan interior.
He drove it to an event for S2000 owners in Quebec where he won the award for having come the longest distance to get to the event.
Originally from Ontario, Gilles met his wife here in Nova Scotia and stayed. He says he knows he picked the right one because when he told her about the S2000 he had found, she said: “Let’s go get it!”
It’s easy to see why Gilles would love this car. The S2000 (named for its two-litre engine displacement) was manufactured by Honda from 1999 to 2009. The 1,274-kilogram sports car is powered by a two-litre inline four-cylinder engine mated to a six-speed manual transmission that makes 237 horsepower.
For one so briefly on the planet, the nimble sports car has earned a bit of a global cult following and won many accolades in the auto industry, including a four-year run on Car and Driver’s 10Best list, and three years as the highest-ranked model in the J.D. Power and Associates Vehicle Dependability Study ‘Premium Sports Car’.
The S2000’s engine, the F20C, was ranked best engine for five straight years in the International Engine of the Year competition.
