When Audi unveiled the R8 in 2006 it very quickly found itself a huge amount of fans thanks to the dramatic styling and even better performance. After Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson took the R8 out for a spin on their test track he said it was one the best cars he'd ever driven and would give other, more expensive, supercars a run for their money.

As if the stock R8 wasn't interesting enough Audi stepped it up a gear when they announced the GT3 version of the car at last year's Essen Motorshow. While Audi don't intend to race the car themselves (concentrating on the R15) they've made it available to so called privateer teams so any racing team with $420,000 available can buy one and add it to their own racing portfolio.

So far four R8 LMS cars have been entered in endurance races this season including the 24h Nurburgring race where they were leading the race until shortly near the end. The car is already proving an office favourite in our weekly studio races.

Today's "Car of the Day" is the Honda S2000. We always like to learn a bit about the cars in our games. So we set out to do a bit of research on this car and we found out quite a bit. The Honda S2000 is manufactured in Japan and was launched in Aprol 1999 to celebrate the company's 50th anniversary. it was first shown as a concept car at the Tokyo Motor Show in 1995. There have been two individual models of the car throughout its lifetime; the AP1 & the AP2. The AP1 was introduced in 1999 for the 2000 model year and featured a front-mid-engine rear wheel drive layout delivered bu a 1007 cc (122 cu in) F20C inline 4 cylinder DOHC-VTEC engine. The engine produced 37 hp (177 kW) to 250 PS (184 kW), and from 153 ft·lbf (207 N·m) to 22.2 kg·m (218 N·m) of torque.



The AP2 was introduced in 2004 and incorporated several revisions to the S2000. It included larger version of the F20C to the North American market. Designated F22C1, the engine's stroke was lengthened, increasing its displacement to 2,157 cc (132 cu in). At the same time, the redline was reduced from 8,800 rpm to 8,000 rpm with a cutout at 8,200 rpm, mandated by the longer travel distance of the pistons. Peak torque increased 6% to 162 ft·lbf (220 N·m) at 6,500 rpm while power output was the same 237 hp (177 kW) at a lower 7,800 rpm.



Production of the S2000 will cease in June 2009. Plans for an S2000 successor were scrapped in the aftermath of the automotive industry crisis of 2008. To commemorate the production run of the S2000, Honda offered a special variant called the S2000 Ultimate Edition for the European market, and a similar GT Edition 100 variant in the UK. These editions feature a removable hard top, Grand Prix White paint scheme, red leather interior, and numbered plaques.




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