As promised in my recent double post on a classic car meet I attended in France, here’s one car I saw there that merits its own (little) post. Old Hondas are not exactly my strong suit, so I trust you will be forgiving if anything I write about it seems amiss. But I just had to feature this one, as I really took to it when I saw it, even with its slightly scruffy bodywork.
French advert, 1968
I’m not sure when Honda started exporting cars to Europe exactly, but it seems they started off with the sexy S800 coupé and roadster, circa 1966. Honda was after all chiefly known as a motorbike manufacturer at the time, so a sports car made sense. It seems the bigger Honda 1300 was not imported, though I’m not 100% sure about that. The front-drive N models arrived on European shores in 1968, having been launched in Japan in early 1967 as the N360, soon followed by the N600.
Honda made decent business in America with the N600, but they struggled in Europe. Sure, it had all the bells and whistles, including disc brakes, optional automatic transmission, significant horsepower (45 hp) – it even looked quite pretty, from some angles. But the local competition from the likes of BL, Fiat, Renault or VW was brutal, and Honda did not have much of a reputation as an automaker yet. The N360 wasn’t sold in the US, but did make it to Europe. It was one of the smallest displacement engines available on a “normal” car, beating the base 2CV (425cc), but offering 33 hp (gross) @ 8500 rpm, which was unheard of 50 years ago and still seems pretty incredible today.
It’s a great shame that Honda couldn’t convince more Europeans to switch to the N. It was without a doubt the best kei car ever made up to that point, and although the notion of a tiny air-cooled twin must have seemed quite exotic in the US, it was still a common enough solution in Europe.
Perhaps it was a matter or targeting the right market. Your average Citroën 2CV or Fiat 500 customer wanted basic transportation, not a high-revving SOHC mill that screamed its cylinders out and propelled you beyond 100 kph. Honda proposed the Z600 from 1971, and that stylish little coupé found its niche in younger urban females. They didn’t exactly set any sales records with these either, but the Z was much more interesting to Europeans than the N.
This is a 1969 French advert for the Honda range. Interestingly, along with the N360 and N600, there was a special export-only 402cc (sorry: 401.54cc) version of it, the N400. How many did they sell? I have no idea. All I could gather was that Honda built over 1.1 million N360/400/600s from 1967 to 1972 and I had never seen one before. I guess most of them stayed in Japan.
And it’s not through lack of trying on Honda’s part. Compared to most European small cars, the Honda’s interior looks positively inviting. They even created an automatic gearbox for their N (a kei class first), which happened to be fitted to our featured car. It seems Honda were angling for DAF customers.
Well, if I were in the market for a 50-year-old 2-cyl. car with only two pedals, I reckon the Honda would make me far happier than the DAF 33. It has a cheerful face, sort of reminiscent of the Peugeot 204 – but unlike the sedate Peugeot or the positively lethargic DAF, the N360 also packs quite a punch for its size.
The Hondamatic was, according to Honda, a 3-speed gearbox. As we can see in the above 1970 French brochure, they enphasized in their literature that it could be used to change gears “manually” — doubtless to reassure the local clientele, who were unused to the idea of automatic gearboxes, especially on a city car. (Editor’s update: apparently the Hondamatic in these N360/600s did have three actual gears, unlike my previous assertion. That’s according to a reliable source, although he did not have access to technical written specs to absolutely confirm it). The Hondamatic was not available of the N400, as far as I can tell, but could be had on the 360 and the 600.
You can keep your Civics and your Preludes – this is the Honda I’d go for. Well, that Z is also quite tempting. I need to study one up close, along with Honda in general. My eternal thanks to Paul, who knows how to tell a 360 from a 600 (it’s all in the grille!) from 50 paces, unlike me. I’ll gladly don the dunce cap and stand in the corner, reading up on ’60s kei cars, for the remainder of the class.
Related post:
Curbside Classic: 1970 Honda N600: From Rolling Acorns Mighty Hondas Grow, by PN
They were sold here, some have been unearthed recently, mostly they disolved from the rust gremlins, I had a 83 Honda Civic 5 door thats about as small as I’m prepared to go in Honda.
One of the local car magazines, Moderm Motor I think it was made a big thing of the 360’s specific output in their road test. It worked out to 1.25hp per cubic inch, and they said “Imagine if your 186 Holden (the big six back then) produced 232 hp. That’s 1.25 hp per cubic inch.”
Incredible engineering, but they didn’t seem that long-lived on the road. Not in Aussie conditions, anyway.
Actually it’s 1.6hp per cubic inch. (33hp; 22 cubic inches).
I just took it as read, didn’t do the math! 🙂 A 232hp 186 was incredible enough.
Those tires mean business. I wonder how it handles. Presumably well.
Well it does feel like you are driving a go cart. I had one back in the day and definitely fun to drive but I don’t know that you would say it handles well by today’s metric. By the metric of the day where most people equated handling with how easy it was to park, then yes.
“but the Z was much more interesting to Europeans than the N.”
Maybe in other European countries but I have never seen a Z coupe in the flesh whereas the N600 were all around in the seventies. Well not exactly but they were not very rare either. The S800 did sell reasonably well too, I can remember both the coupe and convertible versions on the street here in the Netherlands.
Mr Soichira Honda himself has arranged that spares for these cars shall never become obsolete, this out of gratitude for the little Honda 360 which, in the boss, owner, engineer, visionary and industrialists opinion was the real first successful car for the Honda Motor Company.
And yes, a friend of mine has a flock of these and he can still order parts from his local Honda dealer, it can take a while up to 8 – 9 months but he has never been let down by Soichira Honda’s legacy !
That’s lovely.
I would drive this! How fun for an urban scootaround.
The transmission issue is interesting. We got a 76-ish Civic wagon as a long term loaner after I wrecked my mother’s car. I vividly remember the Hondamatic, which did not shift itself. You had to move the lever from 1 to 2 for any performance at all, or you could just leave it in 2 if you were lazy.
But I do not remember the lock-up torque converter at all. Wiki says that it was there. Being a Honda I cannot imagine that it was malfunctioning and not locking up. And it was over 40 years ago.
Also, I cannot imagine a worse combination than an 8000 rpm twin mated to a slushy coupling with too few gear ratios. Make mine a stick.
I’m a bit unsure about this issue too. I had the distinct impression that the Hondamatic on those early Civics worked as you say, like an old Dynaflow or PG, meaning it would start in high gear unless you selected Low. And that it didn’t shift automatically.
I don’t know just how noticeable the lock-up converter was. I’m guessing not very. Which is why it’s a bit of a stretch to call it a “three speed”.
This would not be related to the Hondamatic used in the Civic. The 600 and presumably the smaller engines versions have the transmission integrated into the engine case, sharing the same sump and lubrication. So it may very well be a true 3sp.
I’m quite sure it’s not a genuine three speed. The Hondamatic on their motorcycles, which was closely related, also had two speeds and a torque converter.
But there’s not a lot of detailed info out there readily available.
The one in the photo has D 3 2 1 positions marked on the dashboard plaque.
Interesting. I’ve exhausted Google searches for a definitive answer, so I’ve reached out to someone who will know. Stay tuned.
I do know for a fact that the first generation Hondamatic as used on the Civic and Accord was a two-speed with locking TC. And the motorcycle Hondamatic had two actual gears too. But if the N360/600 had three actual mechanical gears I will be gladly enlightened.
Update: I contacted Aaron at AUWM, and although he can’t find the actual texts to support it, he does think these N360/600 Hondamatics did have three actual gears. I will amend the text.
There’s no doubt the Hondamatic in the early Civics and Accords and motorcycles had only two gears, but apparently these were different. I’d still like to find actual technical info on them.
This Honda Transmission Manufacturing of America newsletter does provide some detail about the N360 auto several pages in, and has a diagram of the unit as well. It’s a 3-speed:
http://htm.honda.com/NewsLetter/201808.pdf
Sweet find. N600s and the Z600s were not that uncommon in the US, well, mainly on the West Coast, I should say. There were a fair number still around in So Cal during my years there, including the one I drove that belonged to a coworker. A very memorable experience. A genuine four wheeled motorcycle.
In the first season of CHiPs in 1977 6’5” 280 lb Rosey Grier is pulled over driving a Honda N600 – he has anger management issues, goes on a rampage and rips the door off of his little car.
I remember that one. It looks like they had to modify it so he could drive it from the back seat.
I remember that one.
These had some performance potential. On August 19, 2008, a 1971 Z600 coupe named Evil Tweety set a new speed record for stock body production cars with 750 cc engines at 103.978 MPH (with a stock 600 engine bored to 700 cc). The record was set by Eric Burns at the Bonneville Salt Flats. The next day Chris Clay took “Evil Tweety” to a new record for altered gas cars with 750 cc engines at 106.531 MPH.
Size wise, how did these compare to the Mini? From certain angles you can’t help but notice certain similarities between the two.
The dimensions (in Metres) are given in one of the French ads. Converting that to inches it comes out at 118″ long, 51″ wide and 52″ high, so actually slightly smaller than a Mini (120″, 55″ and 53″ respectively). All figures to nearest inch. The biggest difference is width (and you thought a Mini was narrow…).
I have wonderful memories of the Z600. One of the guys in the Presque Isle Bicycle Club, John D’Angelo, was a complete eco-freak and bought one of the first Z600’s seen in Erie, PA. As he really didn’t care about cars, he was happy to let me use it pretty much any time I wanted.
Which meant his Z600 ran a couple of rounds of D-sedan autocross (not too bad, but it really couldn’t hold with a Fiat 600 in the handling department), and a lot of rallying.
It was an excellent car. Build quality was terrific, I can’t remember the gas mileage, but it sure made my Vega GT look like a gas hog, and the biggest weirdness was how noisy it got when you turned the heater on. I was always left with the feeling that the heater was air blowing over the cylinder heads for heat (not unlike the foot heater on my Gold Wing).
I’d love to find one of those today, but what few are left are rarely up for sale, and when they are the asking prices are usually scary.
Oh yeah, John being the consummate eco-freak, sold the car and replaced it with a Sebring-Vanguard CitiCar. Which was a story unto itself.
I know of two coupes sitting in Honda showrooms around here, both orange.
There’s a story in Hemmings about the restoration of the first Honda car in the US. It was on display at the Peterson Auto Museum in LA when I visited in October of last year.
https://www.hemmings.com/blog/article/saving-1000001-1967-honda-n600/
The first Honda cars in the US is the theme of Season 4, Episode 5 of Mad Men (The Chrysanthemum and the Sword) when the firm was pitching for the US Honda account. One of the better episodes of the show.
Have always wondered whether Honda could have fitted a small inline-4 into the N360/N600 for export markets, such as the 356-791cc DOHC used in the Honda S360/S500/S600/S800, Honda L700/L800 and Honda T360/T500 or a similar yet cheaper compact inline-4 engine.
In the case of the DOHC inline-4 is it known whether it was capable of being further enlarged beyond 791cc?
It is also a shame both the N360/N600 and Life never featured a hatchback.
I love these (well, the 600, don’t think I’ve seen the 360 but same body..) Anyway, I’ve seen a few over the years, there are always a couple of very nice ones at the Japanese Classic Car Show and they pop up on CL every once in a while out here as well and the CHiPs episode mentioned above is good too (watchable on Amazon Prime currently, BTW). For fans of anything 60’s and 70’s, ChiPs is prime TV material, just turn down the volume and enjoy the sights…
A classmate of mine had a yellow Z600 in high school, that one took a little more getting used to, but the N just has a wonderful shape and in fact is what the new Honda Electric Car Concept seems to be modeled after.
The Honda Z600 was sold here. In Melbourne, they were mostly used as getaway cars because of their enormous speed (2minute very chucklesome clip from a delightful film called “Malcolm”, from 1986). Absolutely worth two minutes of your time.
https://aso.gov.au/titles/features/malcolm/clip2/
Sales of the N-series in the US started in 1967, and the Z-series was introduced in 1971. Unfortunately, the U.S. never received the interesting and stylish Z600 pillarless hardtop.
Canada received the S-600 sports car from 1965 through 1967. There were limited sales on the west coast of the N-series from 1970, but it wasn’t until 1973 with the Civic model did the huge marketing for Honda automobiles get its start.
Many thanks to all for your great comments, special thanks to Paul for his corrections and super-special thanks to Aaron Severson (AUWM) and cjiguy for correcting Paul’s corrections.
Hello, i’m really enjoy to see my car on a website.
I’m the owner of the Honda N360 on the pictures above.
This car work very well, it has only 22000km (14000 miles).
The automatic gearbox is very pleasant (yes, it’s a three speeds gearbox), and the engine is a joke for a car (at 90km/h the engine RPM is at 6800-7000 and it want more).
The car has somes bodyshell impacts (but zero rust) because it had a difficult youths. In France the japanese car had bad reputation due to the propaganda realized by the french manufacturers,consequently many cars end their life in car breakers, because it was very diffuculte to sell on the used car market.
To conclude, i put somes pictures about the interior and the engine.
Sorry, if i do some english mistakes, it’s not my native language.
Bye and thank for this article.
Tristan (21 years)
Tristan, thank you for the added pictures, and for making a good home for this rare car. To this American, the line that Hondas had a bad reputation in France makes me laugh out loud. Here it was French cars that had one of the worst reputations and Japanese cars like Honda that took over the market for small cars. Anyway, I love your little Honda.
Thank you for commenting and showing more pictures of your wonderful car! I hope it serves you well in the future.
The dashboard:
And the engine: