2005 Honda S2000 AP2, F22C

This 2005 Honda S2000 is an AP2 finished in a custom pink over tan and is offered from Umhlanga by umhlanga_ap2, about this seller, its second owner and the keeper of the car for twelve years. It carries the 2.2 litre F22C through the six speed manual and shows 112,900km.

The colour is the first thing to deal with. It left the factory in Silverstone Metallic and was resprayed in 2019 at 81,300km by the owner's choice. The invoice naming the original paint code and the custom mix is published, along with 22 frames the shop took of the panels in primer. It is not a factory colour in any market and the listing does not present it as one.

Asked at intake whether the door shuts, boot channel and engine bay were fully prepared during that respray, the seller declined. His stated reason is that the shop has since closed, he was not there during the preparation, and the primer photographs show the outer panels rather than the jambs. The photographs are published and a bidder can see for themselves what is and is not covered.

Mechanically the file is straightforward. Valve clearances were checked and set in July, a clutch and gearbox out inspection was done in 2024, and the suspension was refreshed to factory geometry in 2022. The flaws stated are a fogged rear window on the second soft top, a cracked and collapsed driver's bolster, air conditioning that needs a regas every eighteen months from a leak nobody has traced, and unreplaced rear differential mounts that clunk on a sharp lift.

The S2000 is the car Honda built for its fiftieth anniversary and then left almost unchanged for a decade: front mid engine, rear drive, a 50:50 chassis and a gearbox that is still the reference for how a shift should feel. The AP2 arrived in 2004 with the 2.2 litre F22C, shorter gearing, a lower redline and revised suspension aimed squarely at the reputation the AP1 had for snapping into oversteer.

The mechanical weak points are few and well documented: the differential mounts, which tear and clunk, the soft top rear window, which fogs and cracks, and on hard used cars the clutch and its spigot bearing. The engine itself is the strong part of the car provided the valve clearances have been checked, which on a high revving Honda four is a service item and not an optional one.

In South Africa these were sold in small numbers and most survivors have been modified, so an unmodified car on factory geometry is the rarer half of the market. A repaint out of the factory colours cuts the other way, and this lot puts both facts in front of the room at once.