Photos: Ryan Cabanizas
Guestwriter: Lance Sugiyama

With the handling prowess of a thoroughbred track car with the looks to boot, Honda’s late roadster, the S2000, has truly become a modern day classic. The S2000’s perfect weight distribution and a sky high redline garnered praise from virtually every media outlet, including Top Gear’s rather colorful review, “If Dr. Jekyll had owned one of these, he wouldn’t have needed a potion to turn him into a right nutter”. Alex Yang is definitely as civilized and cultured as Dr. Jekyll. While some may concentrate on Mr. Hyde-like brute force, Alex built a showstopper that would be right at home dancing around a tight, technical track like the Tsukuba circuit or cruising the touges found snaking throughout Japan’s mountains.

The strongest point of Honda’s little roadster is the handling. Wanting to be able to out handle any competitor, Alex swapped the already formidable stock suspension with a Zeal XS coilover suspension. Stopping the gorgeous 17 x 8.5 and 17 x 9 Advan RZs, which were wrapped in sticky Bridgestone Potezna RE-01Rs, comes solely from Project Mu. The front end’s 355mm 4-piston big brake kit applies pressure to the 2 piece floating rotors. The stock rear brake pads were swapped out in favor of a set of their NS pads. Finally, everything gets cinched into place by a set of Project Mu swivel lug nuts.

Wanting to maintain Honda’s sparkling reputation for reliability, the engine bay was dressed up with Mugen bolts (originally intended for the license plate), a J’s Racing snorkel, an ASM radiator cooling plate and the crown jewel of the engine bay… a Spoon Sports spark plug cover, signed by the founder of Spoon Sports, Tatsuru Ichishima.

Not wanting to have all the JDM-goodness in places where passerbies won’t appreciate them, the exterior received some love in the form of a S2000 CR front lip, Veilside Version 1 side strakes, Mugen FRP hardtop, Mugen license plate bolts, JDM sidemarkers and Honda badging. What will really convince the passerby that they have taken a wrong turn and ended up in Tokyo, is Alex’s vast collection of JDM decals… Shakken (Japan’s safety check), registration, parking permits and a Japanese Automotive Federation sticker. Everything one would need to legally drive in Japan.

The interior modifications have been kept to a minimum with an ARC titanium shift knob and a carbon kevlar cross member cover. Creature comforts include a Honda navigation system, Modifry Garmin 350 mount with Nuvi ball and a Honda Music Link iPod hookup.

By combining an agile chassis with such choice aftermarket parts, Alex’s concoction of a superb chassis with choice parts and style, will live on just like just like the legend of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.