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The Honda S2000 offers a lot of presence, particularly in Spa Yellow or one of the other bright shades. (For 2002, it comes in a new Suzuka Blue with a blue interior, a new Sebring Silver, as well as Grand Prix White, Formula Red, and Berlina Black.)

The S2000 features classic roadster proportions: a long hood, which permits the entire mass of the engine to sit behind the centerline of the front axle, and a short rear deck. But its visual appeal doesn't quite measure up to its extraordinary mechanical creden-tials. It looks a little slab-sided and plain compared to its rivals, and I don't care for the angular front styling. But it is executed well, exuding high technology, a look that a lot of sport compact car rodders strive for, but seldom achieve.

For 2002, Honda has accented the taillights with chrome rings to give them a refined and polished look.

> all S2000 pictures

This is a two-seater without much room for anything else. The leather seats, which are standard, are highly supportive for hard driving and comfortable for cruising. Aside from a couple of tiny bins sequestered between the upper portion of the seatbacks, there's just no place to put odds and ends. Door panel net storage pockets were added for 2002, but there's no glovebox. In this regard, the Honda S2000 is even less practical than the Mazda Miata. In short, there's nowhere to put anything in this car.

Rainbow-shaped digital instruments offer relatively poor legibility. A digital tachometer arcs across the top of the array like an electronic rainbow; there's a digital speedome-ter in the middle and the arrangement is flanked by small fuel and coolant temperature gauges. A big tachometer is standard competition practice - most race cars don't even have speedometers - but as racy as it is, we'd still prefer an analog speedometer in this car because analog instruments provide rate-of-change information and digital readouts don't. So, while the instruments are playful, they are not as useful as analog gauges.

The hidden AM/FM/CD stereo is a nice feature. The buttons on it are small, but that is addressed by redundant controls just to the left of the steering wheel.

Thankfully, a glass rear window has been added to the Honda S2000's soft top. The top is power-operated. An aero windscreen was added last year to reduce buffeting when the top is down. As mentioned, a removable hard top is also available.

Air conditioning, power windows, power mirrors, cruise control, keyless remote entry, and tilt steering are all standard. Starting the S2000 reminds us we're driving a thinly disguised race car: just press the big red starter button to the left of the steering wheel. Another race car cue: The tall, square, carpeted driveshaft tunnel that runs down the middle is reminiscent of a racing prototype or homemade hot rod.