The S500 was the second production

car A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarded as ...

from

Honda is a Japanese public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a product ...

(and its first passenger automobile), 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.

Design

Like the S360, the S500 used a high-tech engine developed from Honda's

motorcycle A motorcycle (motorbike, bike, or trike (if three-wheeled)) is a two or three-wheeled motor vehicle steered by a handlebar. Motorcycle design varies greatly to suit a range of different purposes: long-distance travel, commuting, cruising ...

expertise. It was a

dual overhead cam An overhead camshaft (OHC) engine is a piston engine where the camshaft is located in the cylinder head above the combustion chamber. This contrasts with earlier overhead valve engines (OHV), where the camshaft is located below the combustion c ...

straight-4 A straight-four engine (also called an inline-four) is a four-cylinder piston engine where cylinders are arranged in a line along a common crankshaft. The vast majority of automotive four-cylinder engines use a straight-four layout (with the ...

with four Keihin carburetors and a 9500 rpm redline. Originally intended to displace 492 cc, the production version was 531 cc and produced at 8000 rpm.Buckley, Martin.''The Illustrated Book of Classic Cars''. Anness Publishing Ltd, 1997, 2003, p. 146. At the time of its introduction, its dimensions and engine displacement were larger than established

kei car Kei car (or , kanji: , "light automobile", ), known variously outside Japan as Japanese city car or Japanese microcar, is the Japanese vehicle category for the smallest highway-legal passenger cars with restricted dimensions and engine capacit ...

regulations. The S500 used a four-speed

manual transmission A manual transmission (MT), also known as manual gearbox, standard transmission (in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States), or stick shift (in the United States), is a multi-speed motor vehicle transmission (mechanics), transmission ...

. A four-wheel

independent suspension Independent suspension is any automobile suspension system that allows each wheel on the same axle to move vertically (i.e. reacting to a bump on the road) independently of the others. This is contrasted with a beam axle or deDion axle system in w ...

was also novel, with

torsion bar A torsion bar suspension, also known as a torsion spring suspension, is any vehicle suspension that uses a torsion bar as its main weight-bearing spring. One end of a long metal bar is attached firmly to the vehicle chassis; the opposite end termi ...

s at the front and chain-driven,

coilover A coilover is an automobile suspension device. The name coilover is an abbreviation of "coil-over shock absorber". Description Coilovers are found on many vehicles, from RC cars to normal passenger cars, race cars and 4x4 vehicles. They are s ...

-sprung trailing arms at the rear. The car was priced at $1,275 in 1963. An optional fiberglass

hardtop A hardtop is a rigid form of automobile roof, which for modern cars is typically constructed from metal. A hardtop roof can be either fixed (i.e. not removable), Convertible#Detachable hardtop, detachable for separate storing or retractable ha ...

was also available. 1,363 S500s were produced from October 1963 through September 1964. The S500 saw competitors during its introduction, such as the

Datsun Fairlady The Datsun Sports (called Datsun Fairlady in the Japanese and Australian markets), was a series of roadsters produced by Nissan in the 1960s. The series was a predecessor to the Z-car in the Fairlady line, and offered a competitor to the European ...

, the

Toyota Sports 800 The is Toyota's first production sports car. The prototype for the Sports 800, called the Publica Sports, debuted at the 1962 Tokyo Auto Show, featuring a space age sliding canopy and utilizing the powertrain of the Publica 700, a Japanese marke ...

, and the

Daihatsu Compagno The Daihatsu Compagno is an automobile which was produced by Daihatsu in Japan from 1963 to 1970. The name comes from the Italian word for "partner." The Compagno was designed to be offered in multiple bodystyles, and was introduced prior to the ...

References

Notes

External links

{{commons category, Honda S500
Motor Trend History of S600
S500 Cars introduced in 1963 Roadsters