An S2000 In The Dales

MK1 Honda S2000

A impromptu trip to the Yorkshire Dales to let the VTECH sing.

With the current lack of anything fun to drive in the household an old friend comes to the rescue!

Jonny and me have been friends since our school leaving days and both have a common interest in, amongst other things performance cars. Lucky for me he owns several, the MK1 Honda S2000 being one of them pictured above. He mentions the plan of heading off to the Yorkshire moors for a weekend of driving on some of the best roads the our isles have to offer. So a date is booked, insurance paid for me to drive and we hit the roads. With only our over night stay as our destination we headed north from Derbyshire in to the Peak district. Once past the hustle of Matlock the road opens up and Jonny, whos currently in the driving seat, opens up the Vtech for my first experience. Having never been in any Vtech powered car its great to be able to hear that you can rev the engine all the way up to the red line and the car will thankyou for it. We soon pull in to a layby so we can swap driving duties, then its onwards towards Mam Tor. The roads were mostly to busy around the area to push on so after a quick coffee stop we decided to head straight up towards Buttertubs pass in the Yorkshire Moors. The traffic soon became lighter and I found myself with some open road to let the little Honda stretch its legs. I drop down a gear and then push on right up towards the red line with the engine screaming away, snatch the next gear and it just wants to go. Thankfully the brakes were all working fine as I then have to slow for approaching traffic, but what a noise! Now clearing Bradford way we start to head in to the southern area of the moors and the scenery starts to really open up. We head towards Long Preston and then up to Langcliffe where the views are just next worldly. It also brings some great twisties and with that I throw it in to some corners and come out smiling the other side. It’s such a nimble car and loves to dart from apex to apex at relatively low speeds. The seating position isn’t ideal for a 6ft 5+ human but then again they were probably never built for such height gifted types. The lack of steering wheel adjustment is the real bug bear if you are tall especially. Ideally both of us would have had the wheel closer. Jonny mentions you can get a steering wheel boss than does bring the wheel closer but he wants to keep the car as OEM as possible to preserve the experience how Honda intended it to be, and I do get that.

We keep heading towards Buttertubs pass when we are stopped by a closed road, which happens to be the only road the sat nav can find that will take us to the pass from the south. Realizing this is now not going to happen we set the nav for our overnight stay and the heavens decide open.

After one of the most peaceful nights kip in the quietest village I think I’ve ever been in we make for our first stop of the morning, coffee and a sausage sandwich whilst we decide on our route. A quick google later and a route suggested by a few sites pointed out that the road between Pickering and Whitby on a quiet run can be a joyous thing. With that in mind we headed back to the car with me at the wheel for the first run over. Now by this time in the day it was mid morning and traffic had already picked up so for our first run over the moors it was very steady, also very foggy at the highest point. However the road itself was not bad at all. Hairpins, crests, dips and smashing views (when the fog allowed) showed how this road maybe at the crack of dawn could be a peach to drive. With the drive over to Whitby pretty uneventful we pulled in before we hit the town and made a driver change and a U-turn back over the moors on the same road to start our lengthy journey home. Halfway over the moors we ended up behind a convoy of caravans, luckily for us just over a rise the view opened up and so did the road. Jonny didn’t need a second invitation, dropped down a gear and made short work of the convoy. This was pretty much to be our last proper moment enjoying some of Yorkshires finest roads and giving the S2000 a good gallop, after this it was steady going for most of the journey home.

For our first unplanned UK road trip I’d have to say I really enjoyed it. Forget we’ve been in lockdown and the fact I haven’t had a performance car to call my own in quite a while, it was just a joy to go out and drive a sports car on some fantastic roads. The S2000 really wants you to get those revs in to the red and its all the better for it. Its just a joy to rev out a car these days that was made to do so. I must say though after a day with the soft top down and that engine screaming my voice was shot! Pretty sure my ears were ringing slightly to? Never the less I wouldn’t change anything about the weekend, bring on the next!