The auction-bound S2000 might be one of the highest-mileage examples ever and is potentially worth rescuing

The Honda S2000 remains the last truly unfiltered performance car to emerge from the brand’s golden era. Few machines have managed to bottle such raw precision in such a compact, high-strung form. Owners know it, too, which is why these rear-wheel-drive roadsters are cherished like heirlooms, their manic four-cylinder engines screaming to 9,000 rpm as if channeling a superbike’s spirit.

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Look no further for proof of that than one guy who drove his S2000 all the way to 498,452 miles, or 802,181 kilometers, if you prefer metric, before a truck and a low-speed, 5 mph accident put it out of commission.

For a naturally aspirated engine that spent its life at the edge of engineering possibility, that’s nothing short of a testament to Honda’s obsessive reliability and the S2000’s resilience.

While the original owner has moved on, there’s hope that someone will come along and take this Honda past the 500,000-mile mark and beyond. Truth be told, it’s tempting to consider it myself.

This particular AP1 version of the S2000 is headed for a salvage auction in Detroit. The nose might be a bit wrinkled, but the story behind the sports car and the crash is nothing short of extraordinary.

It all started back in 2004 when the owner installed an Amsoil BMK-13 Dual Remote Bypass oil filter and a prelube pump on the car. The S2000 had just 5,997 miles on it at the time.

That setup allowed the owner to go further between oil changes, and they wanted that because they stacked a lot of highway miles on this car. On average, they drove over 23,700 miles per year since new. That’s 1,976 miles a month or 65 miles a day, every day, for 21 years.

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In a Reddit thread about the IAAI salvage auction, the owner says they used Amsoil 0W-30 from new and then switched to Pennzoil Platinum 0W-30 once the engine began to burn more oil around 400,000 miles.

That said, they were able to go some 40,000 miles between oil changes, and they confirmed the efficacy of that interval via routine used-oil lab analysis.

The crash that sidelined this S2000 wasn’t very catastrophic in nature despite its clearly grim outcome. The owner says that it happened at just 5 mph, and the other vehicle was a truck with a bumper so high that instead of contacting the S2000 on the bumper, it peeled the hood up.

The radiator support, radiator, and left fender have damage too. Thankfully, the frame rails are intact, and the car still runs and drives. We just hope whoever buys it next can take it way past 500k.

Photos IAAI