Originally Posted by
boots
yeah there was this one in modified a couple months back that reved to like 11,000 and i think made somewhere around 270ish it was just hot
Just about every claim in that article was bullshit.
As far as handling vs power: You don't need all those bars and crap to make an S2000 an amazing handler. You just need good shocks and springs (Koni Yellows and a good lowering spring will get the job done VERY nicely) and anything after that is just a tiny bit of icing on the cake.
Also, the Vortech kit will be very good to your engine at stock boost. I wouldn't worry about reliability at all. Just keep an eye on all the tensioner related bits and you should be fine.
For under $2K you need to get the aforementioned shocks and springs and put the rest toward a used Vortech kit from a trusted seller. This guy, by the way, doesn't instill much trust. The bid on that kit is now at $6100 and the bidder IDs are kept private. I wonder why?