The Tokyo Auto Salon isn’t until next January, but Honda has already revealed a few of the cars it plans to display at the aftermarket extravaganza. Both capitalize on nostalgia, and are both are based on kei cars exclusive to the Japanese market.
Three years ago at the Tokyo Auto Salon Honda showed off a the S660 Neo Classic, a retro-bodied S660 sports car. It was so well received that Honda decided to produce the kit and make them available at Honda dealers across Japan. Though we weren’t sure how well it translated the classic S600 and S800 roadster designs to the modern S660, it hearkened back to the Bubble Era aftermarket that Japan was so well known for, and that made it cool.
The Neo Classic Racer takes that concept to the extreme, adding fender mirrors, exposed-fastener overfenders, and spoilers both chin and rear. The covered headlights appear to be a tribute to the taped-over look from the sealed-beam era. Additionally, it puts a hard top to the S660’s canvas roof. Honda hasn’t revealed whether the kei-class maximum 63-horsepower turbocharged inline-three has been exceeded, or whether there was any suspension tuning involved.
The Honda Trip Van is based on the popular Honda N-Van released earlier this year. That kei car was already somewhat retro, with its side and roof panels evoking an old school bead-rolled look, a high-roof design, and round headlight elements reminiscent of sealed-beam lamps. The Trip Van adds a vinyl-esque seat, faux wood-grain trim, a three-spoke wood-rimmed steering wheel, and steelies to further the nostalgic style. Honda says it’s a functional and simple road trip vehicle for a college students into surfing and beach life, and we can’t find any reason to disagree.
It’s great to see Honda still doing fun concepts like these, even if they will never see the light of day on US shores. The Tokyo Auto Salon will be held at Makuhari Messe from January 11-13, 2019.
Awesome
Love the NCR. Clean up the front end styling, ditch all the numbers and stripes, give it a 1 litre turbo engine without speed limiter, and send it over here, specifically to my house.
Ha, make that two.
Dang…Honda is building the new MR2 before Toyota.
Ha!
The Honda logo rear window is a really cool design easter egg.
Good catch!
Can I put a Nissan badge on it? 🙂
I was a fan of the regular Neo Classic, but not entirely convinced with every detail as grafting retro aspects onto a modern shape is a difficult thing to do.
This one works great though – there’s enough different that it becomes its own thing.
These were the kinds of things that I felt Nissan needed to be looking at in that question of the week from a few weeks back. The S660 is a bit more of a toy due to being a sports car, but the charismatic practicality of the Trip Van is the kind of thing that modern cars need more of. If you want to make people enjoy cars, you need to enable them to form emotional relationships with them. Having details or features that stick out, and fit into a person’s life or tastes is the way to do that.
Unfortunately, while whimsy is ok in kei cars, the Japanese manufacturers are increasingly chicken about doing this in their “proper” cars.
Somebody build the Trip Van for America!!! I’ll be the first one in line. AWESOME!