Honda S2000 Ultimate Edition - the roadster's Swan Song

Honda S2000 Ultimate Edition

Honda S2000 fans will get one last chance at buying the roadster. Beginning in March, the Honda S2000 Ultimate Edition will go on sale to honor the car's short-but-sweet history.

The Ultimate Edition comes in Grand Prix white with graphite colored alloys. Black S2000 badging is also seen around the vehicle. Inside, the driver is greeted by a red leather interior, with matching red stiching along the gear shift. A number plate marking the car's place in the limited edition run is mounted to the kickplate.

Mechanically, the car is the same as the current edition. A 2.0-liter 237 horsepower engine moves the car along.

Production of the Honda S2000 is slated to end in June, following a restructuring plan introduced by Honda CEO Takeo Fukui. The new direction is meant to refocus attention on Honda vehicles geared towards a mass audience, with innovations making those models more efficient. Along with the S2000, the NSX project, several Acura vehicles, the CR-Z convertible, and a new V8 engine were all cancelled.

The Honda S2000 Ultimate Edition will be unveiled on March 3 at the Geneva Motor Show.

Source: Honda

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Honda has announced that the Honda S2000 Ultimate Edition will go on sale from March 2009 in Europe. This limited edition has been produced to mark the end of production for the award winning sports car.

The Ultimate Edition retains its highly acclaimed 2.0 litre 9000 rpm VTEC engine and combines it with a Grand Prix White body and graphite coloured alloy wheels. The shade of the paint evokes the colour first used on Honda's 1964 F1 car and many sporting models since. The exterior colour combination with the dark metal alloy wheels and unique black S2000 badging gives a fresh look to the timeless shape of the roadster body.

The white exterior will be matched with a red leather interior and complimented by unique red colouring for stitching on the gear lever gaiter. Ultimate Editions will be marked out by their unique numbered plaques on the kickplates, denoting their position in the series.

The 2-seater sports car may now be almost 10-years old, but its 240PS 2-litre is still one of the highest output per litre and highest revving engines ever made. In recognition of its incredible power output, the Honda S2000's engine has won the International Engine of the Year category for 1.8 to 2.2 litre engines five times in its lifetime.

As the name suggests, the Honda S2000 Ultimate Edition will be the last version before global production of the model ceases altogether at the end of June 2009. Since the introduction of the Honda S2000 in 1999 until the end of 2008, Honda has sold 110,673 units worldwide - 19,987 of those in Europe.

The first viewing of the Ultimate Edition will be the 2009 Geneva International Motor Show starting with the press day on the 3rd March.