2001 Honda S2000

If you like cars today, chances are good you built scale models of all your favorites when you were a kid. Model building was always a good way to purge my young system of its latent automotive lust, because nothing's more frustrating than wanting to get behind the wheel of a car-any car-and tear off down the street when you know you won't be legal to drive for years to come. While I myself am all thumbs and my models turned out pretty crappy looking more often than not, sometimes playing with models can hone a certain rare individual's automotive fabrication skills and set him or her on a crash course with destiny.

One such person is Southern California resident Perry Yem. He still plays with models every chance he gets, but at this point in life he actually does it for a living. Founder and owner of Mastergrade in Signal Hill, Yem uses his models to design and fabricate incredible aerodynamics overhauls for today's most popular import hot rods. The yellow S2000 spread across these pages is his latest creation, and sports almost as much carbon-fiber as an F1 racecar. Well, maybe not quite, but have a look at the pictures and you'll see what we mean.

Yem bought the car new in 2001, and at the time there was still a considerable waiting list if you wanted to be one of the lucky few to get your hands on the Honda roadster. An impatient person by nature, Yem couldn't wait to start implementing new design ideas, so in his spare time he feverishly built scale models of the car and began overhauling the scaled down exterior with modeling clay. By the time he took delivery of the actual vehicle, he had a pretty good idea of what he was going to do with it.

Once he had a basic design concept, achieved by playing around extensively with his models and clay, Yem removed any factory panels that offended his artistic eye and mocked up his new design elements using temporary wood panels. Through excruciatingly detailed cutting, milling and sanding, he created the basic shapes he needed before implementing the new designs in strong, lightweight fiber cloth. Take a walk through the Mastergrade shop and the guy's enormous talent is immediately apparent. He could easily find work as a designer for one of the big automakers and make a shitload of money, but when you suggest this possibility he just smirks and shakes his head. After all, he does pretty well with his company, and as company head he needs answer to no one but himself.

For its part, the S2000 has given up a significant portion of its factory sheetmetal and now wears a full custom widebody kit designed and built by Perry Yem and his team of Mastergrade artisans. The six-inch flared quarter panels are perhaps the most impressive components and immediately give the diminutive S2000 some serious visual muscle. These widened quarters have been matched up to new, completely redesigned front and rear bumpers. Unlike a lot of off the shelf kit pieces, the bumpers are tastefully designed and don't draw your eye away from the car as a whole. Other additions include a lightweight fiber hood and carbon-fiber headlamp "eyelashes", designed by Yem of course, as well as updated OEM 2004 lighting assemblies both up front and in the rear, and a sizeable carbon-fiber C-West rear wing adapted from a 350Z application. Aside from this wing, the lights and the pricey Mugen carbon-fiber shell that quite literally tops the project off, all exterior designs were effected by Yem and Mastergrade. The bright yellow paint is a custom mix sprayed by an unnamed source, and includes a healthy dash of metal flake that makes the S2000 absolutely scintillate in high sunlight.