Honda S2000

Honda's 50th anniversary gift to driving purists was a 2.0-liter naturally aspirated engine that revved to 9,000 RPM — the highest specific output of any NA production engine at its 1999 launch (124 HP/liter). The S2000 rewarded skill and punished complacency with its razor-sharp VTEC engagement and notoriously snappy oversteer. It had no turbo, no AWD, no electronic nannies — just a bulletproof F20C and one of the best manual gearboxes ever built.