S2000 Gets a Facelift

Since the APR GTC-200 wing is so amazingly effective at high speeds, producing high-speed understeer, I have been lusting after Fil's CR lip. This would hopefully improve front aerodynamics, improve high-speed balance, and ultimately cornering speeds and lap times. The process I went through to obtain this CR lip was quite circuitous.

The CR lip does not work on an AP1 front bumper. So I had to find an AP2 bumper, preferably in Grand Prix White (because I hate dealing with body shops and non-original paint). So after scouring the S2Ki pages for weeks, I found one... sorta. This guy was selling his GPW front bumper with OEM lip for $550. Except I didn't want the OEM lip. After another week or two going back and forth with him, I finally decided to pick up the bumper and lip for $500... from San Diego. Seven hours, $500, and 5 California Burritos later, I had my bumper back at home.

I quickly found a buyer for the OEM lip, and in a few days he came to pick it up for $250. Excellent, as now net cost to me for the front bumper is $250. I ordered my CR lip and all the hardware from Majestic Honda, except they waited till the last minute to tell me that the CR lip was oversize, and they couldn't ship it at all. But they were gracious enough to ship out all the hardware for the lip they could no longer give me. Amazing customer service! Luckily, I found a place in Oxnard, CA selling a brand new GPW CR lip for $365 (almost $40 cheaper than Majestic Honda). Net cost for CR lip and all the hardware: right about $410.

Now, my theory is that the CR lip produces so much downforce, that it needs eight more bolts that must be drilled through the front of the bumper to hold it securely in place. Except this AP2 bumper (off a MY2004) didn't have these holes, obviously. I tried my best to dry fit the lip on, and using this MacGyver technique. That is, I placed a bit of chewing gum inside the nut of the CR lip then pressed it against the bumper so it would leave a small saliva imprint exactly where the holes should be drilled. It took me about two hours to drill 7 of 9 holes. Then as I was taking a break, I noticed that on the backside of the bumper, there are small, slight X-shaped depressions in the bumper that corresponded perfectly to where the holes should be drilled. Drilling the next two holes took 15 seconds. Gahhhhh! OMGWTFBBQ!!!

AS AN ASIDE: Who the hell would think that a bumper made in 2004 would have markings for a lip that wouldn't become available until 2008 (as the CR in USA and the Type-S in Japan)? Is this some sort of time-warp? Was Honda really developing the CR at the same time they were revising the AP1 to AP2? Why the hell did they wait four years to release it if they were so sure they were going to make these products that they made X's on the back of the bumper so that we could install it more easily? W...T...F?!?! Actually, it turns out that yes, Honda was developing the "CR" back in 2003. It was called the Modulo Concept (no, not the 2009 Modulo Concept that looks fubar, but the 2004 Modulo Concept). My guess is that the Modulo Concept was planned as Dealer Accessory Parts, sort of like what happened with the TSX. But they decided to sit on it for a few years and eventually just release it as the CR/Type-S.

Then as I was surfing the web looking for DIY/writeups on installing the AP2 bumper, I realized that the AP2 bumper won't fit on an AP1 because the bumper beam is different. Gah, so I'll have to buy an AP2 bumper beam. So I looked up some dealer prices on the bumper beam. The bumper beam itself is $166.52 and the little foam piece that sits on top of it is $53.52, for a total cost of $220.04. What the hell? This little bumper beam costs almost as much as the bumper itself? Are you kidding me?

I guess I could just remove the bumper beam and hope that I don't run into anything (as without the bumper beam the front bumper would disintegrate on impact and transmit all the forces from impact straight into my engine bay). Then, I looked through several different S2000 part-outs. One good thing about the S2000 being so tail-happy is that people crash them quite frequently doing their cAnYoN rUnZ and dRaG RaCeZ. All I had to do is find one that crashed rear-end first and try to acquire the bumper beam. Turns out, there was a black 2004 S2000 being parted out from a rear-end collision. Best of all, his car was in San Bernadino, 15 minutes from my place. The guy obviously didn't know much about how much things are worth:

Me: So how much do you want for the bumper beam?
Him: I don't know. What is that?
Me: [Points to it] That metal piece.
Him: Hmm... how about $30?
Me: [Almost stupefied] Deal!

I paid that man as fast as I humanly could and ran off with the bumper beam and foam.

AP1 (White) vs. AP2 (Black)

The foam piece and corners are slightly different

I had to do a few more MacGyver tricks to get the bumper and beam off, install the new bumper beam and bumper with lip.


In the end:



Turns out the splash shields are slightly different between AP1 and AP2, such that the bolts that fasten the under tray and splash shields to the bumper don't line up correctly. I was only about to get 2 of 9 bolts. I'll have to visit Home Depot and either get nuts that fit the Honda bolts (as the original bolts are attached to the splash shield), or get a new set of bolts and matching nuts. It will be interesting to see how this lip actually performs.