What is this Tiny Car?

[Prafeston]

Saw this little guy in a parking lot in Olathe, KS last night. Had the girlfriend jump out and check the badges. Front emblem had an H on it and the circle emblem on the side of the car just said coupe..

[91blufestiva]

Honda 600?

[Prafeston]

Cool, looked at google images. I think your right. Man, that is one tiny car. The Festiva might actually look like a normal car next to that thing.

[Christ]

Yes, It's a Honda Z. It's one of a few Kei cars with that chassis, three models specifically, sporting bike-class engines in a slightly-larger-than-a-go-kart-chassis.

That particular chassis came with a 354, 356, or 598cc engine, all parallel twins and air-cooled.

I'd love to have one, personally. Or a Subaru 360, or a Honda N360/600, or one of any other of the various Kei cars. Too bad they can't be registered in PA unless they're bought with a transferrable registration (cuz then PA doesn't check before issuing a title).

And the 600cc version is probably faster than our cars, with 36HP at 9k RPM and sporting a chassis weight of slightly over 1300lbs.

[Christ]

Enjoy:



Img is link.

[georgeb]

It's a Honda 600Z Kei car. Japan gave tax breaks for tiny cars due to urban congestion.

[Bert]

These little guys must be from the mid to late 70s; round lamps and look eerily like a squeezed Civic.
There was a cute chain-drive? 600 Honda ragtop way back and some enterprising colleagues of mine managed to shoe-horn a Toyota Corolla engine in it (we're talking the late 1970s). Shifting gears became a PITA because the shifter wound up between the seats, and the car was no longer a nimble flyweight on the road.
Speaking of Festy-like cars VW is currently marketing an "UP!" model everywhere but n. America. They feature a 1 litre engine and look more like they were derived from a Festy than any other car out there.

[crusher773]

I have seen that guy too wondered what the heck it was.

[DriverOne]

I would LOVE to get one of those cars! I wonder if Honda made a 1.0+ engine that would fit. I think you could upgrade the wheels to 13's and still drive it, but you'd have to import the tires to make it work. Low-pro 13's are nonexistent here, as far as I know... Man I wish I had expendable cash!

[Tommychu]

I would LOVE to get one of those cars! I wonder if Honda made a 1.0+ engine that would fit. I think you could upgrade the wheels to 13's and still drive it, but you'd have to import the tires to make it work. Low-pro 13's are nonexistent here, as far as I know... Man I wish I had expendable cash!

You can get 195/45r14s and 50-series 13s here, they'd be a tight fit but if somebody can shoehorn 17s onto a Festy, anything can be done.

Also if these cars used a full fledged bike-class engine there's got to be something that fits, and likely quite a few at that. What I know about bike engines could be written on the hood of that honda by the patient of a failed lobotomy done entirely with a large hammer, with a can of runny, over-thinned house paint and a 12" roller though. So I wouldn't be able to comment on which engine that would be exactly.

[Christ]

AFAIK it's the same engine, internally, as a Honda CX650 used later on, except older.

I'm probably wrong about that though. I've only ever seen one of them IRL.

ETA - Never mind, I'm drunk. it's absolutely NOT the CX650 internally. I'll find it once I get this blood out ofmy alcohol stream.

[Lannis]

It's a Honda 600Z Kei car. Japan gave tax breaks for tiny cars due to urban congestion.

I used to own and drive one, a 1970 model. A few of these came into the country before the Civic did.

Mine had a 600+ cc twin-cylinder air-cooled engine that looked just like an oversized Honda 305 Superhawk motorcycle engine. The 4-speed shifter stuck out of the dash, and the car drove and rode a lot like a VW Beetle of the day. Would run all day on the highway at 60 MPH without getting hot or distressed, and only weighed 1350 pounds or so, so it kept up well with city traffic.

Lots of room in it, sort of like a Festiva - plenty of head, leg, and elbow-room. As I remember, it got about 50 MPG when driven spiritedly.

I wish they still made something like this, but people are addicted to their luxuries these days, and don't want bare, spare little economy cars any more.

Lannis