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Comment by jdietrich | Hacker News Reader

The R35 started development in 2000 and was launched in 2007. It has had a number of updates along the way, but you can only push an old platform so far. The R35 has already been discontinued in most markets because it can't comply with new regulations. It's sad to say goodbye to an icon, but the R35 has remained in production for far longer than anyone would reasonably have expected.

It probably doesn't help that the car is so closely associated with Carlos Ghosn.

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It's a really interesting car. Right there with the Honda S2000 one of the most interesting cars in the last 25 years. Sadly, both Nissan and Honda have failed to create a saga.

2 sports car purchases ago, the S2000 was near the top of my list, but came in 2nd place because it was going to be my only car, and I figured a 2 seat hatchback was more practical than a 2 seat convertible.

I think I made the right choice though both the S2k and the car I bought increased in value over the following 15 years.

I'd still love to own an S2k, but the way values have continued to levitate actually pushed me into a Boxster instead. I still think I'll own one some day. The s2k is one of the most attractive sports cars in history, IMO. I think that was helped by the fact that they never replaced it -- a replacement model always 'ages' the previous one.

Did you buy Z3 in the end? :D

maybe the FF or GTC4Luso?

No one has ever cross-shopped an S2k and an FF.

Oh, I was thinking clown shoe cars in general.

both those car are 4 seaters.

I had a Z3MC for 18 years, yeah.

S2000's are great. The only thing I hear about them is they leak or burn oil, and once that's handled... good times.

That’s mostly the AP1 with the 9,0000 rpm rev limit.

Wanna know how I _handle_ it? I check the oil before I drive it and top it up. Perhaps I could swap retainers and banjo bolts but I’m lazy and checking the oil is easy. I pop the hood when I pull into my garage to remind me to check the oil before racing off.

I agree on just checking the oil and topping it up.

Luckily there’s more options too if it’s too late and there oil leaking beyond just burning a little the gaskets need to be dealt with.

A nice hack is also to meet a Honda mechanic who can take care of it privately.

Oil burning was a common problem for early S2000s (specifically AP1 motors) and AFAIK (having been an owner for 10+ years and read nearly every s2ki/s2kca forum post over the last 20 years), the problem was never truly solved in a documented, reproducible way.

Replacing the valve stems, seals, changing oil brands/weights, etc. have all been a bit unscientific and for me, the only thing that’s “worked” was not overfilling (as anxious owners tend to do), checking early and often, and ensuring I read the dipstick correctly (the trick on this motor is to read both sides of the dipstick).

Unfortunately, Honda always held firm on the "1 litre per 1000 miles is considered normal” and the problem went away with the F22C/AP2 motor. I've learned to live with it for an otherwise extremely reliable ownership experience.

I just purchased an AP2 back in July, i've taken it to the track twice already. It may not be as fast as some of the other new mid/entry level tuner/performance vehicles that have come out in the last few years, but I bet have the biggest smile on my face than anyone out there.

The R-36 is most welcome.

> The R35 has already been discontinued in most markets because it can't comply with new regulations.

Another thing to add to the list of things to love about the R35.

Why is that something to love? Making it more exclusive to other markets?

I interpreted it a "regulations bad".

Unfortunately, in the USA, the regulations essentially just force manufacturers to put the engine into a huge body just so they fall under different (less-strict) emissions regulations. So banning small vehicles like this with okay gas-mileage (which I would consider "ok" to be in the 20's range), but we aren't improving the environment, since consumers are now just pushed to huge vehicles with gas mileage in the high teens.

I wonder if a fuel economy standard that ignores vehicle size would be viable. That would advantage the lightest, most aerodynamic cars and make big vehicles expensive. Some people need big vehicles, but increasing costs for those people might be an acceptable tradeoff for making the average car smaller with the inherent benefits to fuel economy and reduced danger to other road users.

It would totally be viable. Just politically difficult for timid politicians

So many regulations could be streamlined and IMO made much more effective if they were just designed around the simplest way to make people pay for their negative externalities. Carbon taxes and congestion pricing are great examples of this. Instead we have Byzantine regulations like these with unintended consequences like conditioning everyone into thinking they need a 5000lb monster truck.

like simply inflating gas prices?

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