Honda is well-known for their loudest machines on the planet such as the Civic Type R, the NSX, the Integra, the S2000, and the Beat, but long before these neighborhood-waking speedsters burst into the streets, there are some Hondas that time forgot. One of them is the tiny little Honda called the S800. What's it all about?
Unveiled at the 1965 Tokyo Motor Show, the S800 served as the direct successor to the S600 and like the S600 it replaces, the S800 is offered in a choice of an open-top roadster (seen here) and a hardtop coupe. Powered by a 791cc 4-cylinder engine mated to a 4-speed manual gearbox, the S800 has a top speed of 160kph, which is irrelevant in Japanese roads but its enough to be named the fastest 1.0L car in the world. Until 1970, about 11,536 units were made, making them almost a rare find in today's motoring world.
Having won this at the recent Spring Horizon Playlist, I had the chance to get to know more about this tiny old Honda and by the looks and feels of it, my biggest impression is that the S800 feels right at home on the streets of Edinburgh. Sure, it may be Japanese but the way it drives is mistakenly British.
This is, in my mind, the Mazda Roadster of its era, way before the Mazda Roadster emerged many years later. It's light, agile, and good all round, unless you are prepare to make it more rowdy because of the swappable engines you can apply on it such as a 2.0L VVT engine, a 4-cylinder motorcycle engine, and a 2.0L rally engine.
To see what I'm on about, it's time to take the S800 for a quick spin against the other old-timers in a sprint race leaving Edinburgh. Let's get the tape rolling.
Well done, old-timer.
Enjoy your new ride!