Nine thousand
How a two-litre four-cylinder earned the most famous redline of its day, and a power-per-litre record that stood for a decade.
Every S2000 wakes up the same way: key turned, thumb on the red start button. The idle that follows is busy and a little gruff, and it gives no clue what the engine is for. That only becomes obvious past 6,000 rpm, when the F20C changes cam profiles and the whole car seems to take a second breath before the bar graph races for 9,000.
Two litres, on purpose
The engine displaces 1,997 cc, and the car is named after it, the same way Honda named its 1960s roadsters: S500, S600, S800. Honda had history with high revs, too. The little S500 of 1963 was redlined at 9,500 rpm.
The F20C takes that idea and builds a modern engine around it. It’s oversquare, with an 87 mm bore and a shorter 84 mm stroke, the classic recipe for an engine that wants to rev. Inside are roller rocker arms, fibre-reinforced metal cylinder liners, forged pistons, and a timing chain rather than a belt.
| Specification | European cars | Japanese cars to 2005 |
|---|---|---|
| Engine | F20C, 1,997 cc | F20C, 1,997 cc |
| Compression | 11.0:1 | 11.7:1 |
| Power | 240 PS at 8,300 rpm | 250 PS at 8,300 rpm |
| Redline | 9,000 rpm | 9,000 rpm |
| Fuel cut | 9,150 rpm | 9,150 rpm |
A second engine above 6,000
VTEC gives the valves two sets of cam lobes. Below the switchover, the F20C runs on mild profiles that keep it easy in traffic. At around 6,000 rpm, depending on oil pressure and what the engine management sees, it locks onto the aggressive lobes and the last 3,000 rpm arrive in a rush. Peak power comes at 8,300 rpm. Peak torque, just over 200 N·m, doesn’t arrive until 7,500.
Peak torque at 7,500 rpm, a speed most road engines never see.
A record that stood for a decade
At launch, the F20C had the highest specific output of any naturally aspirated production car engine in the world: about 120 PS per litre in European trim and 125 in Japanese trim. That was more per litre than the V10s and V12s coming out of Lamborghini and Ferrari.
And it held on. For about ten years no naturally aspirated road car beat it, until Ferrari’s 458 Italia arrived in 2009 with 127 hp per litre from a 4.5-litre V8 supercar. Turbocharged engines have long since left all of these numbers behind, but for an engine breathing on its own, in a car you could use every day, it remains a remarkable thing.
The best power per litre of any naturally aspirated road car, from 1999 until 2009.
Why Europe kept the 2.0
For 2004, North American cars switched to the F22C1, a longer-stroke 2.2-litre with more torque lower down and a redline cut to around 8,000 rpm. Japan followed in 2006. Europe never got it, so every European S2000, from the first 1999 cars to the 2009 Ultimate Edition, has the 9,000 rpm F20C.
That matters here. Malta drives on the left, so the S2000s on the island tend to be right-hand-drive cars from the UK or Japan. A UK car will have the F20C whatever its year. A Japanese import from 2006 on is likely to be the 2.2, so check the engine code on the block before you assume you’re buying the 9,000 rpm version.
Treat it the way it wants to be treated
Check the oil level often, because the F20C uses some, especially when it’s worked hard. Let it warm up properly before you go looking for the top end. Then use it. The redline is the reason the car exists.