CARSPOTTING> ASM (Autobacs) Equipped AP2 S2K

Sometimes you run into modified cars at times that you might not expect… Not too long ago, I went to a friend’s house so we could roll together to a car event. Right as I pulled up onto his street, I noticed this bright red Honda S2000 parked in the alley behind his house. It was super clean, with only one sticker on the entire car – a red and white MotorMavens “M” sticker on the lower corner of the windshield. Wow, how awesome… I hadn’t even seen the car before, or met the owner of the car, and it was already rocking our sticker!

Just a few minutes later, my friend Terry Pham from Infinit Wheels introduced me Anthony Juarez, the owner of the car. Anthony told me that he bought the car pretty recently from a guy in Las Vegas, and brought it all the way home to Southern California. Since I already had my camera with me anyway, I just had to grab some photos! Since Anthony knew I was going to be taking some photos, he decided he would add some more stickers to the windshield, just to rep some homies like our good friends at Infinit Wheels and Yogi from Illest LA.

The first thing that I noticed about the S2000 was the hood, which was vented with three mesh screens on the passenger side. When I asked what kind of hood it was, Anthony said, “it’s actually a factory hood, and it was already like that when I bought the car. The previous owner cut the holes in the factory hood, but look… he actually did a super clean job of cutting. It’s real smooth and professional looking, so I didn’t mind it.”

When I asked Anthony to pop the hood so I could inspect the handiwork more closely, I saw that it was, in fact, a pretty clean cut job. I honestly think it’s kind of crazy to cut up a factory hood like that; just imagine… what if you started cutting your hood and you screwed up?! Damn, that would suck!!! Just to clarify things, I asked Anthony for more details. “Wait, so the previous owner bought another hood and cut it, right? You still have the factory hood somewhere?” “Nope, he just straight up cut the hood. Haha!” As crazy as I think that is, I honestly gotta give props to the guy who did the cutting. It does look pretty legit – the work was very cleanly done, from the cutting of the metal, to the placement of the mesh screens. Good job, man.

A quick glance into the engine bay shows that the car is pretty mild, when it comes to engine mods. I noticed a lightweight Odyssey battery, Spoon Sports strut bar, and an AEM cold air intake at first glance. Anthony admitted that he hasn’t done much to the engine yet, because it’s his daily driven car, and he’s obviously not done building it up. He’s still working on stacking up some more paychecks so he can add more mods to the vehicle. Cool, I can respect that.

The rear view of the car reveals an HKS Hi Power catback exhaust underneath the OEM rear bumper. The only other visible rear modification is the carbon fiber duckbill trunk spoiler from ASM (Autobacs Secondhand Market) in Japan.

Anthony’s S2000 sits low (but not too low) on coilovers, with Michelin Pilot Sport tires in 255/35/R18 size mounted to his highly polished wheels.

Speaking of wheels, this red S2K sits on 18×10.5 +35 CCW Classic wheels with gold hardware and lugnuts. The wheels sit perfectly close to the car’s ASM fenders, which are 10mm wider than the factory fenders.

The cool thing about the ASM fenders, in my opinion, is that it includes a wide trim piece to add on to the S2000’s front bumper. This trim piece provides a nice continuation of the bumper line, so it doesn’t look weird (and too wide) when it meets the bumper. Although, I appreciate that ASM took the time to think of this trim piece, and provide it with the bumper… I wish they elongated it, so that the trim piece would be long enough to reach down to the front lip spoiler!

Apparently, my photo shoots involve a whole lot of talking and joking around. Even though we began taking photos of the car in the alley around 3:30pm, the sun started setting just an hour later, which put a nice glow onto the car. We decided to move the car into the middle of the street, so we could get some nicer light on it.

Much to the dismay of the neighbors, we just parked the car right in the middle of the street, right next to a school. All the passers by kept wondering what was going on. Who exactly was this big guy standing in the middle of the street with a large lens? Is Paris Hilton over there or something? Nope, no Paris… nothing to see here… just a bunch of inconsiderate guys shooting photos in the middle of the street while you’re picking up your kids from school. Sorry.

Right before we left to go home, a guy in a red 1979 Corvette rolled up to pick up something from his friend, who was waiting nearby in a parked car. I thought the Corvette looked awesome… it had muscular fenders and an aggressive nose, and stock wheels that reminded me of Hayashi Street wheels. Seeing a red Corvette like that reminded me of Dirk Diggler’s car in the movie Boogie Nights! Hell, we were in the San Fernando Valley anyway, the porn capital of the United States. There’s just something right about cruising Sepulveda Blvd in a red 1970s Corvette, blasting the Bee Gees. Hahahaha!

Anyway, we persuaded the owner of the Vette (he was really cool by the way) to line up with Anthony’s S2000 in the middle of the street! I was trying to egg them on to do a burnout and drag race down the block. I know, I’m a bad person. We’re not supposed to condone illegal drag racing on residential city streets. I wonder which car would win that race? The modern Honda engine with VTEC? Or the classic American muscle car with a big, beefy V8?

:: Antonio Alvendia