Skip to main content

Honda S500


The S500 was the second production sports car from Honda, released in 1963, following the T360 truck into production by four months. It was a larger displacement variant of the S360 roadster which, though developed for sale in 1962, was never produced.

Like the S360, the S500 used a high-tech engine developed from Honda's motorcycle expertise. It was a dual overhead cam straight-4 with four Keihin carburettors and a 9500 rpm redline. Originally intended to displace 492 cc, the production version was 531 cc and produced 44 hp at 8000 rpm. Weighing just 1500 lb (680 kg), the tiny S500 could hit 80 mph (129 km/h).

At the time of its introduction, its dimensions and engine displacement were larger than established Kei car regulations.

The S500 used a four-speed manual transmission with chain drive at the rear wheels. A four-wheel independent suspension was also novel, with torsion bars in front and diagonal coilover shock absorbers at the rear.

The car was priced at $1,275 in 1963. An optional fiberglass hardtop was also available. 1,363 S500s were produced from October 1963 through September 1964.

The S500 saw competitors during its introduction, with examples called the Datsun Fairlady, the Toyota Sports 800, and the Daihatsu Compagno.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Westfield XI

The Westfield XI or Westfield Eleven is a British sports car and kit car based on the Lotus Eleven. In 1982 Westfield Sportscars, responding to the popularity of the original Lotus XI, started production of a replica with a fiberglass body available as either a finished car or kit car. Initially called the Westfield Sports, the factory-finished cars were usually fitted with an uprated 1,275 cc (77.8 cu in) BMC A-Series engine, although some factory cars were fitted with Ford Kents. The majority of Westfield XIs are sold as self-build kits without engines and designed to accept the 1275cc A-series from a donor MG Midget or Austin-Healey Sprite. Owners have fitted a variety of engines, including Coventry Climaxes, Lotus twin-cams and Alfa Romeo engines, although engine fitment is limited by the small size of the engine bay. The kit is designed to utilise other components from a donor Sprite or Midget: the rear axle (modified by Westfield), gearbox, driveshaft, front upright/brake assembl...

Yamaha OX99-11

The 'Yamaha OX99-11' V12 was a sports car designed by Yamaha's subsidiary Ypsilon Technology and IAD, an English engineering consultancy, which was supposed to enter production in 1994. Yamaha began competing in Formula One as an engine supplier in 1989, and using the experience it had gained during that time it wanted to build a price-no-object car based on actual Formula One technology. Even though the Formula One project was doing poorly in competition, by 1991 the team had just produced a new engine, the OX99, and approached a German company to design an initial version of the car. Yamaha was not pleased with the result as it was too similar to sport cars of that time, so it contacted IAD to continue working on the project. By the beginning of 1992, just under 12 months after starting to work on the project, IAD came with an initial version of the car. The car's design was undertaken by Takuya Yura, and was originally conceived as a single seater. However Yamaha req...

Chrysler 300C Hemi

The Chrysler 300C Hemi is a full-size flush sports car aboriginal apparent at the 2003 Fresh York Auto Show as a abstraction car. Sales in the U.S. began in the bounce of 2004 as an aboriginal 2005 archetypal year car. Advised by Ralph Gilles, the fresh 300 was congenital as a high-end auto while the SRT-8 archetypal was advised to be the high-performance version. The Chrysler 300 is additionally marketed in Australia, as the aboriginal full-size Chrysler agent awash there back the Valiant was discontinued in 1981. The car will be awash in Europe as the Lancia Thema alpha in October 2011. However, it will abide branded as the Chrysler 300 in the UK and Ireland only.