Honda may seem like a proper automotive juggernaut today (especially from North America, where their overseas success has been most marked), but its first steps in the car-making business were fairly recent. A mere 60 years is not very old for an established automaker, even a Japanese one. And it all started with a lovely little monster called the S500.
Caveats should be employed whenever we use such definitive statements, though. First, Honda had a decently-long history as a motorcycle maker prior to branching out in cars. In fact, they overtook NSU as the world’s number one (in production volume) in 1959. Not bad for a company that was only founded in 1948.
The second caveat is that the Honda T360 was the first four-wheeled vehicle produced by Honda, beathing the S500 roadster by a few months. But the T360 is a kei truck, not a sports car, so Honda’s car history can be said to start off with the S500.
In postwar Japan, the Ministry for International Trade and Industry (MITI) reigned supreme over the automotive sector. And the mighty MITI felt that the sector, which had been partially unshackled in the mid-‘50s, was already getting untidy and overgrown. Rumour was that the MITI would not allow new entrants in the domestic car market and encourage merge the dozen or so players to be pared down to about five or six. This was all packaged into a draft law in 1961.
This MITI-meddling really rubbed Soichiro Honda the wrong way. He was absolutely passionate about cars since childhood, but had resorted to excelling in motorcycles because that was the only segment available by the time he created his own business. In 1958, now at the helm of a hugely successful manufacturing concern, Soichiro Honda had launched a secret car development program. He publicly attacked the proposed law, vowing not to let his dream of becoming a carmaker be stifled any longer.
Honda pressed on the accelerator. The aim was to get the car program started before MITI could do anything about it, but that did not mean that things needed to be rushed or overly simplified. Honda’s R&D folks tested out several engine solutions, including an air-cooled flat-four and a front-drive OHC air-cooled V4, before deciding upon a RWD layout and a water-cooled DOHC straight-4 made of aluminium fed by no fewer than four (!) carbs. This when contemporary kei cars like the Subaru 360 or the Mazda R360 were rear-engined, with rather basic two-stroke twins.
The T360 truck was a natural choice for volume, but to imbue the new car branch with a distinctive aura, Honda decided to go for a roadster – a completely left-field idea in the Japanese context of the times. And a stroke of PR genius, as it definitely put Honda firmly on the map when the S360 was unveiled at the 1962 Tokyo Motor Show.
The S360 and the T360 used the same engine, but the chassis were quite different, with the truck having a sturdy ladder-type frame, a mid-mounted engine and a leaf-sprung live rear axle. The roadster’s chassis was almost like a backbone affair, with torsion-bar suspension in front and a very novel rear end consisting in a pair of chains set inside independently-sprung semi-trailing arm-like casings.
The S360 was made to fit in the kei class, but Honda figured that a slightly larger variant, both displacement- and length-wise, might be warranted. This long-tail 500cc version ended up being the production car, as the S360’s market was deemed just too narrow. Not that Honda were figuring that they could export the S500, either: the roadster would be strictly JDM-only.
The S500 was thus officially launched at the 1963 Tokyo Motor Show as Honda’s first non-kei vehicle. It was still tiny, of course, but not as much as it might have been. Sales started in earnest in January 1964, but did not last very long: the S500 was overtaken by the S600 in mere months, so Honda’s first car was also one of their shortest-lived models.
The S500’s engine went through a few last-minute changes. The 1963 pre-production cars had a 492cc DOHC 4-cyl. providing 40hp, but by the time the car reached the dealerships about three months later, displacement was upped to 531cc and power reached 44hp.
This tiny marvel, whose engine was designed to deliver its maximum power at 8000rpm, could reach well over 130kph on the road, though there were precious few places where it could do that in Japan at the time. No matter, Honda had won their bet: even if the S500’s production run was limited, it was still a significant and technologically brilliant machine, enabling its maker to take its place among Japan’s automakers.
The MITI-backed legal threat was defeated, both in the market and in parliament, and Honda were able to thrive on four wheels, just as they had done on two.
Despite rightfully priding themselves on doing everything in-house, Honda had to import one key component for their roadsters: there were so few locally-made convertibles (only Nissan were making them at the time, and in very small quantities) that there was no outfit capable of producing the fabric top. Those had to be imported from the UK, at least initially.
It was an excellent decision. With the top up, the Honda roadster still looks the part – not always a given.
How many of these gorgeous little things did Honda sell in the first half of 1964? This is not an easy question to answer. Some English-language sources claim over 1300 units, but all the Japanese ones I’ve been able to find say “about 500.” And it so happens that I found two of these rare machines, too.
It could be the same car. The license plates are (slightly) different, but that seems to be the only discrepancy. Apart from the transmission tunnel leather trim, that is, which went from a rather patinaed red to a new-looking black — but that could have been changed in the interim. Perhaps it was sold and re-registered between the time I first caught it on this parking lot and when it appeared at the traditional Meiji Jingu informal Sunday car meet a couple of months later.
The new owner/registration theory holds water, as it’s apparently even harder to find a Honda S500 nowadays than the legendary Toyota 2000GT. Those were seen as collectible even in their day, whereas the S500 was eclipsed by its more powerful and successful descendants, the S600 and especially the S800.
Those later versions of the Ur-Honda will have their CC in due course – they’re around, they have a significant fan base and I’ve caught more than a few by now. But nothing quite hits the senses like the original. Especially in mint condition like this.
There are a few survivors languishing in museums across Japan. But a two-seater with an 8000rpm red line, one carburator per cylinder and a bonkers independent chain-driven rear end deserves to be taken out for a spin. Good to see there’s at least one (or possibly two) still in use.
Related post:
Automotive History: Honda S500/S600/S800 – Small, Brilliant and Fast, by David Saunders
That is a nice looking car there not that I have ever seen one obviously. Might take it over the MGB to be honest. The first Honda I did ever see was an N360 in 1970 that was driven by a classmate in high school. Never took a close look at the car. Of course there were those that made fun of it and there was the time when a bunch of football players, of course, thought it funny to pick the car up and move it from the parking lot to behind the gym.
The brilliance of Mr. Honda can not be overstated. Combined with his ability and willingness to think outside the box, a trait that was culturally unusual in Japan, he was a man who deserved every bit of success that his company achieved.
This car just makes me smile, small, perfectly formed, exquisitely detailed, I’d love to see the engine. A product of ambition and passion, a testament to Mr Honda.
Refreshingly clean, and original bodywork, and interior. A near masterpiece, in many ways. Unfortunate the top doesn’t integrate better visually, in the closed state. Small potatoes, for an otherwise genuine classic.
Another wonderful find T87, and you’ve done full justice to it. Would love to hear that little engine sing its way up the rev range, it must be a hoot to drive.
I find it even more remarkable that this 9000 rpm redline four-carb four was used in the T360 and T500 trucks. Now that’s totally bonkers.
I wrote an article on these trucks over at the old site, and I’ve long planned to bring it over here:
https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2010/03/hondas-wild-9000-rpm-mid-engine-rwd-t360-pickup-of-1963/
This find is incredible, especially as even S600’s are worth a lot of money now.
Rather oddly, my best mate in high school’s dad had a coupe version of a ’65 S600 in about ’82. I don’t recall going in it, but I did watch him roar up the street in it one time. What a racket (and what a sight, a biggish truck driver squeezed into this peanut-sized car)!
A fun fact is that you are supposed to warm up the engine for five minutes at 3,000 rpm, and if not, the roller-bearing cranks would flatten the needles. No-one did! Lots of engine failures. So Honda engineers here to replace all the engines in the 200 first cars to get here. That sort of approach is a good indicator of why they are a successful company, one which still makes really good cars today.
When Honda brought out the little 600 coupes around 1970 I was already a m/c rider and knew how good their bike were, my first ride was on a Honda 305, and I was aware of their racing success, but the cars were so small they were seen as a bit of a joke, Honda engineering notwithstanding. By ’73 (?) when the Civic came out Honda motorcycles had crushed the British and were almost unassailable in that market, so it was clear that the Civic had to be taken seriously, and it was clearly the best car in it’s market. The Accord a couple of years later was the coup de grace to other small cars. It’s fun to see the progenitor to the little 600 sedans and coupes and what came since.
But why chains? did they want to save on the universal joints? I understand the DAFs with the variomatic belts which also acted as a differential but here chains as a final drive…why?