The Car Channel. TBT - The series. This is a 1971 Honda 600N. I found it in an alley in Toledo ca. 1991 and bought it for $175. My garage had a 1,500lb capacity freight elevator to a large storage loft. I rented space upstairs for the storage of motorcycles and snowmobiles. I had this idea in my mind that I wanted a car that I could park “upstairs” but I never tried to get it on the elevator. The Honda N600 can be traced back to the 354-cc N360 “microcar” of 1964 which made the original BMC Mini seem downright gargantuan. The 599 cc Honda N600 was launched in late 1967, offering 42 hp and a claimed top speed of over 80 mph. U.S. price was $1,275 at launch. Gas mileage was reportedly 40 mpg, but 0-60 took about 18 seconds. Options included a tachometer, roof rack, ski rack, folding rear seat and automatic transmission. Sales of only 4,195 in the U.S. in 1970. Ten inch tires. These cars represent a key moment in American automotive history when Japanese manufacturers were starting to gain a toehold in the U.S. market. Powering the 600 was a vertical, overhead-cam two-cylinder, air-cooled “hemi” engine. (engine pic not my car) The engines had four main bearings, solid valve lifters, and one Keihin-Seiki sidedraft carburetor. Disc brakes were in the front and drums were in the rear. The four-speed gearbox was synchromesh. In about 1995 I sold the car for $350 to an engineer who planned to install an electric starter motor from a jet aircraft engine, batteries and make it an electric car. Never heard whether or not the project was completed.
Posted on: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 11:14:30 +0000
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