----- Original Message ----- From: "Fred Cisin via cctalk" <cctalk@classiccmp.org> Sent: Thursday, April 26, 2018 6:48 PM > The Honda 600 was NOT a bike. Well, mostly not. After demise of the mid > 1960s Honda S600/S800 ("poor-man's-Ferrari" design exercise that got out > of hand and went into production), Honda engineers took a 360CC parallel > twin, detuned it and upped it to 600cc, added a differential, and a > reverse (tacked on to the outside of the case), and put it in a car body > that resembled the Mini. AN600 was the first Hondas officially imported > into USA (1970). A later Z600 had a "sportier" body, and one was cut in > half in the down-under movie "Malcolm" -----------------------
Sounds like you never got the original N360 "Street Car" (360cc 'Mini' before the 600cc 'upgrade') down there; not a big seller here in Canada either: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_N360 Their first 4-wheeler was actually the T360 pickup truck; ridiculous as it sounds in North America, a light 360cc truck actually found a market among golf clubs for course maintenance: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_T360 I loved my S600 roadster while it lasted; it wasn't very fast but sure sounded great at 10,000 RPM. Not many cars have "adjust drive chains" as part of regular maintenance ;-) : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_S600