I know it only has a 660cc turbo three-cylinder engine. I know that engine only puts down 66 horsepower. I don’t care. The Honda S660 looks like it could be a lot of fun under the right driving circumstances. Honda’s new baby roadster just launched in Japan, and here it is in production-spec.
To me, the S660 harks back to the Bubble Era days of the 1990s, when Honda and the other Japanese automakers made all sorts of ridiculous and sporting kei cars just because they could. It may not be the fastest thing Honda’s ever made, but it’s still a brand new cheap mid-engine, rear-wheel drive roadster, so I’m a fan.
In typical Japanese fashion, Honda says they developed the S660 under the philosophy of “Heart Beat Sport,” which is just a fancy way of saying they wanted it to be super fun to drive. As for the exterior, Honda calls it an “energetic bullet,” which sounds really kickass.
The lightweight roadster comes with a roll-back cloth top, a 45-55 front-rear weight balance, a newly-developed six-speed manual transmission or a CVT if you want to have far less fun. The S660 goes on sale in dealerships in Japan in April with a special Concept Edition, of which only 660 will be available for purchase.
Could we ever see this car in America? I’d say the answer is somewhere between “probably not” and “absolutely not” because it is a kei car at the end of the day, but it shows there’s some signs of life at Honda after all.
Maybe I’ll import one in 2040.
Contact the author at patrick@jalopnik.com.