The draw to the sportscar. It must be true to the automobile's true function - in that it is supposed to be an extension of your body's control. Therefore, a sportscar has to be "close" to humans. Not on an equal level, but so it can respond and react appropriately to the driver's will, and slight nuances. When one drives a car built in such a way, and finds true driving pleasure, the driver's soul will feel infinite joy. Horse & Man as One. (Quite important for the Japanese Samurai in battle) Without using a whip or having to pull at the rein, the rider can manipulate the horse to go in any direction at the speed he desires. It is a phrase that was born from such a relationship between man and beast. We have pursued such a relationship for Man & Machine as well. Though the car doesn't have any thoughts as a horse would, it has unseen characteristics that are governed by physics. Our first attempt was to tame this "unseen hand" and make it an ally in our quest for the ultimate sports car packaging. Lightened, compact, low center of gravity, even weight distribution, low yaw inertial moment... It is our belief that those ideals should come together to form a car that will bring man and machine as one. First, we selected the Front-engine, rear-drive (FR) layout. The FR layout is unique, in that it allows the driver to control as much of the automobile, depending on his/her skills. To maximize the FR layout, the engine was made as small as possible, and placed as backward as physically possible. With the engine behind the front axles, we can call this the FR "behind-axle" layout. Heavy items such as the battery, spare tire, fuel tank, etc.. were placed towards the middle of the car, and we were not only able to make the 50:50 weight distribution a reality, but managed to lower the yaw inertial momentum as low as that of a mid-engine car. In addition to placement and packaging of all internal components, the frame rigidity is important. In order for the suspension to work effectively, the frame has to have a certain "stiffness" towards the loads that come with cornering and braking. The S2000 is an open-body sportscar, making it that much harder, yet that much more important that we concentrate on its frame rigidity. In order to accomplish this, we have designed a revolutionary frame. With 2 side members in both the front and back located in a higher position, and connected through the floor tunnel in an X-shape, we managed to create a "High-X-Bone-Frame" with substantially increased frame rigidity. To this frame, we added wide-surfaced side-sills to complete the chassis, which ended up stiffer and more rigid than that of a closed-body chassis.