Following a dream that began many years ago, Sam Flack’s bagged one of the first M&M ‘Hyper’ wide body-kitted S2Ks in Europe…
If there’s one thing to take away from Sam Flack’s S2000 story, it’s this: never try and get in the way of a man with a plan.
You see, the last three years of this West Sussex-based travel exec’s life have almost entirely been filled with trying to prove his peers wrong by building one of the first wide arch-kitted S2000s on this continent. And a limited budget, a slightly shonky base car and only a driveway to perform it all on weren’t going to obstruct him in the slightest…
“It was always the idea to put this kit on it,” Sam says, of the time when he was still in the process of purchasing one of Honda’s acclaimed roadsters – and pondering the idea of a seriously JDM M&M Honda wide-body kit. “I told my friends in my Hondas In South group my ideas, and they laughed at me!” Undeterred, Sam continued with his plans, collecting this relatively cheap Silverstone Grey model back in 2015.
If the phrase ‘relatively cheap’ sent alarm bells ringing in your head, give yourself a pat on the back, because Sam soon realised this Silverstone Grey example wasn’t as great as it first appeared. “It was a complete mess. A proper dog!” he painfully recalls. “Its engine bay was mint, the oil looked clean and the seats not very worn. But I quickly found out it was the biggest pool of mould I’d ever sat in!”
By ripping the interior out and giving the whole thing a complete sterilisation with chlorine bleach, as well as buying a new mohair roof, Sam has thankfully now kept the dreaded mold at bay ever since, once again beginning to focus on modifications rather than repairs. Knowing he’d need an air suspension system and some seriously huge rims to pull the kit off, the hunt was on for relatively cheap parts that fi t the bill.
“It was just a process of what to get, and how, within my budget,” says Sam. Getting a little clever and scouring the small ads online took up the next part of his life. “My good friend Fyse found the full D2 air suspension kit second hand, which was pretty much brand new when it turned up!”
It may have been almost new, but a lack of instructions or wiring diagrams left Sam frantically messaging his Hondas In South pals and taking advice from Fyse, along with a fair few gruelling hours spent under his car on the drive, before the roadster was left going up and down nicely. “I had to mould the gauges into my centre console and fi t the struts almost singlehandedly, outside my house. But we got there in the end!” Sam grins, once again showing his determination to not let anything stop him from creating a killer show car.
Next stop: the hoops that would fill the soon-to-be wider arches. And there was only one choice for young Sam here, really. “I have CCWs on my Civic coupé daily, and have had such a good and easy service from the company, so they were the obvious choice.” What style from the acclaimed American split rim legend would Sam opt for this time though? “The D240s are just stunning. It took a fair few hours of sitting over numerous plates of chicken with Fyse before we spec’d up the sizes we wanted, though.” Weighing in at a fairly colossal 12.5 inches out back, and with a staggering six inches of dish all-round, these polished three-piece puppies would’ve looked frankly ridiculous if it wasn’t for the extensive bodywork plans that Sam had on the cards…
“I missed a few good opportunities to buy the kit from Japan sooner, then suffered massively after the announcement of Brexit,” Sam glumly explains. Still, it had to be bought to finish the project, so during a December sale he snapped up the five-piece affair without looking back.
Regular readers of FC will likely be aware of the huge trend recently to opt for Rocket Bunny kits when it comes to wide-body conversions. So what stopped Sam from doing the same? Put simply, Rocket Bunny has only very recently ventured into Honda territory, starting with kits for Civics and NSXs and only announcing plans to do a conversion for the S2K a couple of months ago. So when he was in the early stages of planning his build, Sam went for what was available at the time in the form of this Fukuoka-based tuning firm’s five-piece racing kit.
“My good friend Chris Purr is very handy with a spanner and along with Fyse was my first choice in helping me cut away the bodywork,” Sam continues, explaining how the team had the arches cut and relevant holes drilled in no time, before the car and kit were sent to Jamie at Prestige Paintwork for a full re-spray in the OEM grey hue.
Back on the driveway in its fresh lick of paint, even more spare hands (including Sam’s other half Steph) were enlisted to get the bumpers, flared wings and side skirts riveted onto the gleaming bodywork, before the new rims were offered up to the car. “We were only a few millimetres out from perfection with our sizing which is pretty good going I reckon!” With the car dumped down to its lowest suspension setting, Sam was finally greeted with the sight he’d been dreaming of for years, and was over the moon with the results.
It’s only been finished for a month or so, but Sam wasted no time showcasing his super-rare pride and joy at the recent Players Classic show down at the classy Goodwood Circuit. A great way to debut what is still one of the only examples of its kind within hundreds of miles around. “It’s received overwhelming positivity and seems to break necks!” our proud owner smiles. “My Honda friends like it, my partner likes it, and I certainly love it, so what more matters?! I’m just a novice with an idea and a driveway. But I’m proud of my creation.”
Just goes to show, doesn’t it? Sam’s S2K is set to cause a stir across the country and beyond now it’s broken cover, proving it’s not all about multi-million pound sponsored builds in this crazy show-car scene we’re in. If you’ve got a clear vision in your head for something that’s sure to break the internet, along with the kahunas to see the project through (and some understanding mates, of course), you really can create works of art out of any situation in life.
TECH SPEC: HONDA S2000
STYLING
M&M Honda Hyper wide-body kit; full respray in OEM Silverstone Grey.
TUNING
2.0-litre F20C DOHC VTEC engine; 5ZIGEN Fireball dual-exit stainless steel exhaust system with custom de-cat pipe.
TRANSMISSION
OEM six-speed manual gearbox and differential.
CHASSIS
D2 four-way air suspension system; 11.5x18in ET-15 (front) and 12.5x18in ET-25 (rear) CCW D240 three-piece alloy wheels with polished finish and 6in lips (all round); Nankang NS2 tyres.
THANKS
To everyone who helped me build the car over the years – they know who they are. My good friend Fyse (@Fyse_Splitrimz) who helped me throughout the whole build, from us spending hours spec’ing the wheels and getting the huge tyres fitted to carrying the kit from A to B during fitting; he even helped me with wiring when I was desperately stuck fitting the air system all on my own. Also to Chris Purr for giving up his weekend to help me and Fyse cut the rubbish out of my car. I’m sure he loved it really. And mostly my girlfriend Steph, for putting up with a very poor boyfriend for the past two years (Sam’s Instagram name is @Sam-EJ2).
Words Sam Preston Photos Daniel Pullen
