1700 Horsepower LS-Swapped Honda S2000 Street Car Chasing Deep 7-Second Times
Taking a smaller car and stuffing it with more power than originally available from the factory is a trick that’s been employed for nearly a century.
In the case of Richard (RC) Flint’s Honda S2000, he has taken his experiences with this particular model and applied it to make changes and ultimately make the car faster while keeping reliability.
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This 2000 model is the ninth S2000 he’s owned, and the affinity can be justified when we learn Richard is a service director at a Bradenton-based Honda dealership.
“I offer to buy all of them from my customers,” Richard says of his S2000 addiction. “And it actually pans out sometimes.”
Although Richard has been through several models before settling on this one, he also has another S2000 set up for road racing, still sporting the Honda 4-cylinder powerplant.
“I like the road course stuff,” said Richard. “But Bradenton Motorsports Park is right in my backyard.”
Richard got a little more push towards the drag racing and drag-and-drive life when the road race Honda broke the transmission. He decided to LS-swap the drag-and-drive car, and added a little extra spice with a big single turbocharger.
“Two years ago, we were always two steps behind the other participants of the class,” said Richard. “So, I vowed to devote 100-percent attention to catching up. Now here we are two years later, and we are equal to, or a half step behind. So, I think we are in the home stretch.”
Richard’s first drag-and-drive, the 2021 Hot Rod Drag Week, put him in the 8.50-time capped Street Race Small Block Power Adder class. And not only did he complete the week, but he put together an 8.65 average to finish fifth in class.
Richard would start his 2022 season with the Honda at the inaugural Sick Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive, and picked up the second-place spot in the 275 Street Race class, finishing less than one thousandth of-a-second behind William Lujan with an 8.541 average.
He returned to Hot Rod Drag Week later in the year, competing in the Street Race Small Block Power Adder class once again. Putting up a competitive 8.551 average, Richard scored fourth place in the class, behind two-time winner Dustin Trance’s 8.514 average.
For the 2023 season, Richard relied on a 414 cubic inch LS-based powerplant. Based on a Dart Pro block, Richard employed a stock Gen 5 L8T crankshaft; unusual, but it has worked so far.
A pair of Brodix BR3 cylinder heads top it off, boost by a FIS single turbo with a large 98-millimeter size on the compressor and a 116-millimeter measurement on the turbine. It’s backed by a Turbo 400 three-speed automatic.
Between the 2022 Hot Rod Drag Week and the 2023 edition of Sick Week, Richard upgraded the roll cage to 25.5-specs to allow the Honda to legally dip into the seven-second range.
“I always want to go faster, it’s a drug for me,” said Richard. “That’s why I don’t like index stuff. I just want to go fast.”
The upgraded cage allowed Richard to turn up the power, and jump into the Super Street class, where a 7.67 average earned him fourth place.
He stayed local throughout the year, competing in The Reunion at Bradenton Motorsports Park in April, making a semifinal appearance in the Street Car class.
After taking some time away from the track, the S2000 returned to Bradenton for the popular FL2K event in October and the Street Car Shootout class. The single turbo returned a 1707 rear-wheel horsepower figure on the chassis dyno just before the event, but Richard was done after a surprising round one loss.
He moved north to Gainesville Raceway for the 352 Shootout event at the end of October, and it would become the site where Richard earned his first Street Car class victory. That spurned him to send the Honda in for some additional roll cage upgrades to 25.2 spec, allowing the car to run as quick as 6.00 in the quarter.
After those upgrades were done, Richard rolled back to Bradenton Motorsports Park for That Racing Channel’s Street Kings on the second weekend in December, picking up his second-straight Street Car class victory.
With Sick Week 2024 on the horizon, Richard is giving the S2000 a facelift with a wrap from Project Prime.
“Kinda that last stretch mentality,” he said. “I have never spent a dollar on looks. The orange color choice came from my previous car that I loved, but it was too dang slow so I got rid of it.”
We won’t have to wait to see the S2000 in action with the new looks, as Richard will compete in tonight’s Christmas Tree Drag Racing World Championship. Then, it’ll be testing to get the Honda ready for its fifth drag-and-drive event - Sick Week 2024 Presented By Gear Vendors Overdrive.
Written by Derek Putnam. Photos courtesy of Sick the Magazine, Motion Raceworks, KWS Images, KC Photography and Richard Flint.
If you have thoughts / feedback / ideas, please e-mail us at derek@sickthemagazine.com