By Brian McGurk
Photography by Henry Z. De Kuyper
Joel Arceo's '04 S2000
"I won't mod it." "It's just a daily." If either of these sounds remotely familiar, you're not alone. Most all of us have been, or will be, in that very same predicament at some point. The pressure that mounts as you envision turning a simple "A to B" vehicle into a new tinker toy is mind boggling. Joel Arceo of Las Vegas, NV, is no different. "I had a turbo hatchback making 440whp on pump gas, and I was rebuilding it when I decided an S2000 would be a good daily driver." Las Vegas has a lot of sun and pretty ladies, so a drop top sports car seemed like the perfect stock daily for anyone. Apparently, Joel isn't just anyone.
"If you don't know me, I will basically mod anything that can be modded." Joel kept it simple...at first. His first mod was a Seibon carbon fiber hard top and an OEM front lip. After tripping over a local set of super rare staggered Work Equips (16x7 front, 17x9 rear) with some seriously aggressive offsets, Joel took them home asap. Following the acquisition of his new rollers, he got the deuce properly "stanced" with a set of D2 coil-overs. Not all that far from stock, but like so many others, Joel was just scratching the surface.
Now we know Joel's type, the guy with the only modified desk chair in the office, so don't hold this statement against him. "No offense to all the S2000 owners who think the car is fast, because this car in stock form is slow in my opinion. I wanted more power, so I ended up piecing my own turbo kit together." Joel didn't want to overshadow the 400+whp beast in his garage, so after collecting parts for a few weeks, his turbo setup gave the roadster the 340hp kick in the ass it needed. We all know where a mild 340hp build leads....straight up to 400hp, and far from half finished hatchback projects. "I wanted the S2000 to have 400whp, and needed parts, so I flipped little stuff off of the hatch like the cams, and it was all downhill until I just parted the whole hatch out for the S2000 build." Joel knew the deuce was good for 400+, but a person's butt dyno is only half accurate, so when he heard that a local dyno tuning day was fast approaching, he went into overdrive to ensure the convertible was ready to be strapped down and belt out some serious power. He upgraded the exhaust manifold, fuel management, and supporting mods to meet his power goal. As we all know, in Vegas, the house always wins, and Joel's turn to pay up came whe
n the deuce was on the rollers. "I admit it, we rushed when we shouldn't have, and the result was bad. The car was sitting on the trailer in the parking lot getting the injectors installed along with all the engine fluids and I forgot to check the coolant, which caused the car to run dry." Needless to say, spinning the F22 to 8,500RPM with zero coolant in Vegas heat means broken parts, not to mention broken hearts, namely Joel's. "It was my fault. I towed the thing home and pulled everything off, got it running, and put the whole thing back to stock." He was done with the deuce as far as our purposes, and bought an S14 kouki, intent on leaving well enough alone.
Joel being Joel though, his stock and slow S deuce didn't stay that way for long. "I didn't want to give up on finishing the car since I never finished the hatch and didn't want to just give up half way through. So, I sold the Kouki and started with the S2000 once again. I had a goal of having the car finished by SEMA." With a goal in site, the cobwebs were dusted off and he and the UPS guy were on a first name basis within the week. His first delivery from the big brown truck was an Inline Pro T4 turbo manifold and custom wastegate to match the BorgWarner T4 S366 turbocharger. Spitting the spent gasses out of the turbo is a custom three-inch down pipe mated to a one-off un-muffled dump tube. Keeping the 2.2L from getting too thirsty, Joel opted for a Full Blown dual Walbro fuel pump hanger setup pushing the high octane stuff through a quartet of 1,000cc saturated injectors. It's hot in the desert, so a Precision 750hp intercooler and custom intercooler piping keep the charge temps low, and a Mishimoto radiator does the same duty for keeping the coolant frosty. A brand new Clutchmaster Stage 5 six-puck clutch was installed to transfer the power to the newly refinished Work Equips. "The wheels were rough and I had to take them apart completely to refinish everything and get them powdercoated. It was like the roof; I got them when I bought the car, but never finished them."
NRG supplied a steering wheel, hub, and quick release, along with their shift knob. A freshened up interior and fire breathing power plant don't deserve a body treated to months of desert sand exposure. A Shine automotive front bumper replaced the weathered OEM piece, and to freshen up the look, a full wrap from top to bottom in a stain blue was chosen. Weeks before SEMA, Joel returned to the scene of the crime; the dyno. The finally completed F22 produced a blistering 595whp. No longer in the "slow" category, it's safe to say that this deuce is wild.
"I won't mod it." "It's just a daily." If either of these sounds remotely familiar, you're not alone. Most all of us have been, or will be, in that very same predicament at some point. The pressure that mounts as you envision turning a simple "A to B" vehicle into a new tinker toy is mind boggling. Joel Arceo of Las Vegas, NV, is no different. "I had a turbo hatchback making 440whp on pump gas, and I was rebuilding it when I decided an S2000 would be a good daily driver." Las Vegas has a lot of sun and pretty ladies, so a drop top sports car seemed like the perfect stock daily for anyone. Apparently, Joel isn't just anyone.
"If you don't know me, I will basically mod anything that can be modded." Joel kept it simple...at first. His first mod was a Seibon carbon fiber hard top and an OEM front lip. After tripping over a local set of super rare staggered Work Equips (16x7 front, 17x9 rear) with some seriously aggressive offsets, Joel took them home asap. Following the acquisition of his new rollers, he got the deuce properly "stanced" with a set of D2 coil-overs. Not all that far from stock, but like so many others, Joel was just scratching the surface.
Now we know Joel's type, the guy with the only modified desk chair in the office, so don't hold this statement against him. "No offense to all the S2000 owners who think the car is fast, because this car in stock form is slow in my opinion. I wanted more power, so I ended up piecing my own turbo kit together." Joel didn't want to overshadow the 400+whp beast in his garage, so after collecting parts for a few weeks, his turbo setup gave the roadster the 340hp kick in the ass it needed. We all know where a mild 340hp build leads....straight up to 400hp, and far from half finished hatchback projects. "I wanted the S2000 to have 400whp, and needed parts, so I flipped little stuff off of the hatch like the cams, and it was all downhill until I just parted the whole hatch out for the S2000 build." Joel knew the deuce was good for 400+, but a person's butt dyno is only half accurate, so when he heard that a local dyno tuning day was fast approaching, he went into overdrive to ensure the convertible was ready to be strapped down and belt out some serious power. He upgraded the exhaust manifold, fuel management, and supporting mods to meet his power goal. As we all know, in Vegas, the house always wins, and Joel's turn to pay up came whe
n the deuce was on the rollers. "I admit it, we rushed when we shouldn't have, and the result was bad. The car was sitting on the trailer in the parking lot getting the injectors installed along with all the engine fluids and I forgot to check the coolant, which caused the car to run dry." Needless to say, spinning the F22 to 8,500RPM with zero coolant in Vegas heat means broken parts, not to mention broken hearts, namely Joel's. "It was my fault. I towed the thing home and pulled everything off, got it running, and put the whole thing back to stock." He was done with the deuce as far as our purposes, and bought an S14 kouki, intent on leaving well enough alone.Joel being Joel though, his stock and slow S deuce didn't stay that way for long. "I didn't want to give up on finishing the car since I never finished the hatch and didn't want to just give up half way through. So, I sold the Kouki and started with the S2000 once again. I had a goal of having the car finished by SEMA." With a goal in site, the cobwebs were dusted off and he and the UPS guy were on a first name basis within the week. His first delivery from the big brown truck was an Inline Pro T4 turbo manifold and custom wastegate to match the BorgWarner T4 S366 turbocharger. Spitting the spent gasses out of the turbo is a custom three-inch down pipe mated to a one-off un-muffled dump tube. Keeping the 2.2L from getting too thirsty, Joel opted for a Full Blown dual Walbro fuel pump hanger setup pushing the high octane stuff through a quartet of 1,000cc saturated injectors. It's hot in the desert, so a Precision 750hp intercooler and custom intercooler piping keep the charge temps low, and a Mishimoto radiator does the same duty for keeping the coolant frosty. A brand new Clutchmaster Stage 5 six-puck clutch was installed to transfer the power to the newly refinished Work Equips. "The wheels were rough and I had to take them apart completely to refinish everything and get them powdercoated. It was like the roof; I got them when I bought the car, but never finished them."
NRG supplied a steering wheel, hub, and quick release, along with their shift knob. A freshened up interior and fire breathing power plant don't deserve a body treated to months of desert sand exposure. A Shine automotive front bumper replaced the weathered OEM piece, and to freshen up the look, a full wrap from top to bottom in a stain blue was chosen. Weeks before SEMA, Joel returned to the scene of the crime; the dyno. The finally completed F22 produced a blistering 595whp. No longer in the "slow" category, it's safe to say that this deuce is wild.
McGurk, B. (2010). 2004 Honda S2000 - Deuce Is Wild. Honda Tuning. Retrieved from http://www.hondatuningmagazine.com/features/htup_1009_2004_honda_s2000/index.html
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