One sweet ride
Posted By Glen Woodcock, Sun Media
Posted 4 months ago
One look inside the cockpit is all it takes to make most people want to take a drive.
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When Colin Kennedy was 10, he accompanied his dad to the local Honda dealer for some routine maintenance on the family Civic and was intrigued by the sounds coming from a nearby service bay where mechanics were trying to tune the four carburetors of an odd little roadster.
That began a lifetime ambition to own one of those cars – a Honda S600 – which Colin realized in June, 2005.
It also led to a career with the automaker and today he is parts manager of Cobourg Honda, in the Lake Ontario town about an hour east of Toronto.
The S600 was Soichiro Honda’s first attempt at a mass-market passenger car. Right-hand-drive versions were made for the domestic Japanese market, but left-hand-drive models were imported to Canada and some Western European countries.
The car was never officially exported to the U.S., although some American servicemen returning from postings in the Far East managed to bring their little cars with them.
Honda didn’t have a string of Canadian automotive showrooms back then – and wouldn’t until 1973 when the Civic went on sale – so the S600 was marketed through the company’s motorcycle dealerships.
Only 11,284 S600 roadsters were built from 1964-66, all of them powered by 606 cc engines mounted at a 45-degree angle and using chain drive to the rear wheels and a four-speed manual transmission.
Colin started the restoration of his car – chassis No. 5833 – in October, 2006 and finished it this past July.
He did the bodywork himself and had the engine rebuilt by Rene Boyd, parts manager for Honda East in nearby Bowmanville.
With an overall length of 130 inches (seven inches less than an Austin-Healey Sprite), the 1,576-lb. S600 rides on a 79-inch wheelbase and has an extremely small turning radius, at just 14.1 feet.
Its all aluminum DOHC engine puts out 57 hp and maximum torque of 37.5 lb.-ft. is realized at 5,500 rpm. Fuel economy is in the range of 6.7L/100 km (42 mpg).
Colin has driven the car about 400 km since the restoration was complete and although the diminutive engine redlines at 9,500 rpm, he’s never had it past 7,000. He reports it “doesn’t sound frenzied” at 6,000 rpm and is comfortable cruising at 100 km/h.
“It’s not exceptionally fast,” he says, and doesn’t intend to see if it will hit its supposed top speed of 145 km/h (90 mph).
Colin also owns three of the even rarer S600 hardtop coupes, of which only 1,800 were built in 1965-66. One coupe, which he intends to restore, shows just 5,246 original miles on the odometer. It has been off the road since 1969 with a blown engine. The other two are strictly parts cars to aid in its restoration.
Unlike the better known Civic, the S600 was constructed on a full frame, which greatly aids restorers like Kennedy.
His car is pretty well stock except for four Mikumi carburetors. He has the original factory Keihin carbs, but lacks the pieces to rebuild them. That’s this winter’s project.
Only a few hundred S600s are believed to have survived, including one in Jay Leno’s collection and another in the Petersen Automotive Museum in LA.
Although tough to find, examples in excellent condition are valued in the $18,000-$20,000 range.
