I've never been a fan of the S models for obvious, engine-based, reasons... but it is the lightest, right? With no anti-sway bars, front or rear? And just about zero options stock? That would make it a good candidate for a swap, I suppose...

Ehhh... the reasons why people buy Hondas are so incredibly varied, like with any other car, that I don't think there's any rule. My boss at work has 254K on his LT1 Camaro (auto), he could care less about speed or flash or anything, he just wanted a car that, to him, looked good. Some Honda people do that... like with Del Sol Ss or Civic DXs or base 4th gen Preludes, etc. And some people want performance, and choose the VTEC engines and do serious mods, and get real honest-to-god performance out of a FWD platform. Tell all the turbo'd B18C owners that they're retards... as they run 13s all day long.

But I do agree with you on one point... it is a good first car for someone, minus the underbody neons - which are illegal here and would draw FAR more tickets than speeding ever would. But a two seaters means less people to distract, the Del Sol by itself has a certain amount of rarity status (the "Whoa, strange but cool!" effect) and since you haven't made it any faster, it's not going to get any speed-happy 16 year olds into trouble. If you're also trying to sell this in your area, you should accentuate this part of the ad.

Last question: out of curiosity, have you done any engine dress-up things? Or have the 4 shows you were in been ones in which the hood stayed down...? All the ones I've attended required the hood to be raised if it wasn't see-through to begin with... or missing, as on some old muscle cars...