First-Ever Honda N600 Gets Restored in New Video Series
As a relative newcomer to the car-building scene, Honda doesn’t quite have the heritage of classics piling up in a dusty warehouse like most other automakers. They do have a legion of rabid fans, however, including one restorer who specializes in very early Honda cars — and found the very first N600 built for the U.S. market.
Honda partnered with that restorer, Tim Mings, and today released the first of a series of videos and features on the restoration of this very special classic on the website Serial One.
Some enthusiasts say they were born with gasoline in their veins. Chris Tonn, on the other hand, had rust flakes in his eyes nearly since birth. Living in salty Ohio and being hopelessly addicted to vintage British and Japanese steel will do that to you. His work has appeared in eBay Motors, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars, Reader's Digest, AutoGuide, Family Handyman, and Jalopnik. He is a member of the Midwest Automotive Media Association, and he's currently looking for the safety glasses he just set down somewhere.
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Had the Z600 variant, it was surprisingly roomy up front and devoid of the usual Honda rust (despite being a Colorado car). One nice feature was its timing chain due to using a motorcycle engine, meant you didnt have to take the entire front end apart every 70k miles to change a belt. Not entirely sure if I understand the rabid fanbase, it was a neat car but nothing amazing, and parts were a pita to source at that time (roughly 2006 or earlier), you cant DC5 Integra whip these things either.
There is a great highly-modified N600 running around on Youtube with an 800cc V4 from a Honda Interceptor driving the rear wheels. If you haven't heard one of these bikes running, it sounds a lot like a smallblock Chevy, and for the weight it has plenty of power. Outrageous little car.
Fantastic. I've only seen a couple of these ever - very cool.
Interesting to see ' emperor mings ' is still out there and playing with old Honda Cars . In 1974-ish , a buddy's girlfriend bought a blue 600 Coupe off a used car lot , it was uber cute and *very* sturdy ~ by buddy was well known for destroying anything with wheels at the time . It was dead easy to fix , I did a clutch job on a Saturday one time , parts were very expen$ive but the local Honda Dealer had everything on the shelf . One time the plastic surround holding the rear window in simply disintegrated as the car was driving and the glass fell out and shattered . Another time Mike managed to break off all but one wheel stud and the poor little thing made it back to Los Angeles fully loaded on _one_ wheel lug.... Noisy and tinny yes but very reliable and super gas mileage . The roller cranks die on these more than anything else due to Americans loving to lug engines and never change the oil . -Nate