In The Club Sara Choll’s S2000
Sara Choll’s s2000 clup racer is one of the rarest cars
on Hawaiian soil right now. But that hasn’t stopped her adding her own slice of
individuality into the mix for good measure.
The
tropical roads of the Hawaiian Islands are becoming an increasingly exciting
place to witness some rare and powerful tuner metal hooning around to an
unbeatable backdrop. Some of the recent shows on the remote group of islands
have made it apparent that, Jap-style tuning is as popular here, as it has
become in every other corner of the planet. Young Sara Choii from the island of
Oahu is one of the many car nuts that has clearly been influenced by JDM
culture. Her car history prior to this yellow marvel should be enough to paint
a picture of her priorities when it comes to motors: 1989 Honda CRX, 2000 Honda
Civic Coupe, 2004 Honda S2000, 2005 Honda S2000... We think you get the
picture! But with plenty of S2000s lurking around in the Aloha State, what
makes her most recent purchase so interesting? To the trained eye, the clue is
in the wing-mounted badges, where a small ‘CR’ sits below the usual S2000
livery. This indicates that Sara’s S2K is part of an extremely exclusive club –
one of a very few factory-tuned Club Racer cars. And as if that wasn’t quite
enough excitement for one day, Sara’s already started modding her
newly-acquired beauty to fit in with her killer JDM tuning style, and so far
she’s got it bang-on.
2000 Honda Civic Coupe
If
you’re not familiar with the CR-spec S2000, you may think that Sara has already
poured a whole heap of modifications into this car. But the brutally-altered
body, wild spoiler and sparse interior are surprisingly still very close to
what Honda intended, explaining why this crazy car was only made in very small numbers.
One Honda insider was quoted explaining how the CR is the closest the brand
went to creating a ‘Type-R’ version of the S2K, with the standard models being
nearer ‘Type-S’ spec. If they drive anything like the Civic or Integra Type-Rs,
then the CR is definitely the one to have!
Type-R’ version of the S2K
The
bonkers styling of the standard CR didn’t quite cut it for Sara, who has
already initiated the start of a comprehensive plan of mods to unleash on the
Rio Yellow Pearl two-seater. “Life’s too boring for a stock car,” she bluntly
explains. We couldn’t agree more Sara! To start with, she wanted to add some
serious lows to complement Honda’s enhanced aero kit. Once dumped on coilovers,
a set of newly-designed SSR GTV01 rims caught her eyes. Opting for a sensible
18-inches all round, and finished in sleek black, the rim choice could not have
been better to enhance the flawless bright paintwork and black detailing dotted
around the car. This did require a trip to the garage for some subtle arch
rolling to ensure that the wheels rolled freely and without snagging. A set of
RX-7-based carbon fibre side skirts serve to perfectly finish off the edgy and
eye-catching lines started by the extended front bumper and rear wing. Finished
with a couple of choice decals, Sara’s subtle body mods have resulted in an
exterior that could not look more gorgeous
if
you tried. Inside, and Honda got the CR’s interior pretty much spot-on from the
word go. Gone is the leather-clad cocoon we’re used to with standard S2Ks, with
heavy- duty cloth bucket seats in their place, and no radio or air-con as
standard. Sara has capitalised on this focused feel with a beautifully
no-nonsense Spoon gear knob, along with a JDM sat-nav setup. With no soft-top,
the CR relies on a removable hard-top when the weather gets a bit dodgy. This
has allowed the car to incorporate Ferrari-esque humps behind each seat, which
look insanely cool when cruising with the roof off.
Once dumped on coilovers, a set of
newly-designed SSR GTV01 rims caught her eyes.
Sara
admits to being caught out without the roof on occasion, though: “I’ve learned
not to go anywhere near the car if there’s any chance of rain – not only is it
a complete handful, if you’ve gone roofless, you’re screwed!” she explains. Sara
understandably jumped at the chance to own such a rare and stunning car, which
looks particularly unique against the usual monotonous motors you normally see
in Hawaii. Although only a young’un and still very early into the ownership of
this particular motor, she has already proved that her thoughtful, subtle mods
have hit the nail on the head in terms of improving the dynamics and look of
this stunning S2K. But she’s not done yet, a turbo kit is next on her list.
Nice work!
