If you don’t know by now that comedian and late night talk show host Jay Leno is a car collector extraordinaire, then we hope the alien probing wasn’t too painful and welcome you back to planet Earth. The great thing about Leno is that he’s not just some rich guy who throws money at the latest horsepower-soaked auction queen to pad his collection. The man knows and loves machines, and works on everything he owns, from Stanley Steamer to Fiat Topolino.
His latest acquisition is a 1965 Honda SM600, which, under his care, promptly underwent a meticulous frame-off restoration with the help of Brian Baker of Formula H Motoworks. “If this had ‘Porsche’ written on it, it’d be worth $250,000, but because it’s Honda, for some reason they don’t get the respect they deserve,” spake His Chinliness. Word up, Mr. Leno. If you’ve never heard a Honda S-car revving to its 9,500rpm redline through a Flowmaster during a fly-by, you need to drop everything and watch this video on Jay Leno’s Garage. It’s absolute music.
While we’re on the subject of the UK and adverts, here’s one of the best, Honda’s “Impossible Dream”. In fact, we can safely say that all artists can just retire now, because never will anything so beautiful be created again. The soaring music, the cinematography, the exhaust note of a 1965 Honda RA272 - it’s all an epic symphony of internal combustion. Seriously, turn up the volume and get your tissues ready because if this doesn’t stir your soul, we’ve got some bad news - you don’t have one. In fact, we like it so much we’re adding it our permanent Video section. Watch the hi-res version here and visit the corresponding website here.
Last Month we posted on a the Honda S2000 Type-S, which looked suspiciously like the US-market Honda S2000 CR that was unveiled in New York. Now the production version of the Type-S has gone on sale, and there are a few minor differences. Less of a track-ready car than the CR (that’s Club Racer to you, bub), the Type-S has a suspension somewhere between that and the regular S2K. The Type-S also keeps the folding soft top rather than the aluminum hardtop affixed to CRs. And oh yeah, the Type-S has the steering wheel on the right.
The Type-S/CR is widely regarded as a final hurrah for the long-toothed roadster. Depending on which sources you believe, the next iteration of the S-car may come in 2009 or not at all. The last of the originals like the S800 pictured was in 1970, a full three decades before the S2000.
One of the things we love about vintage Japanese cars (although this tends to apply to all vintage cars) is the wild colors that adorned their sheetmetal. In contrast, everything on the road today is “champagne” or some hue between silver and gray.
Japanese colors have a curious history, however. Before Soichiro Honda came along to challenge MITI (Japan’s Ministry of International Trade and Industry), common colors found in the automotive spectrum like red and white were reserved only for emergency vehicles. White eventually became the luxury color of choice, fueled in part by Toyota’s “White Crown” campaign to sell it’s luxury flagship to the emerging class of well-heeled Tokyoites. Naturally, no owner would be caught dead in a black Crown, used primarily as town cars for VIPs, because who wanted to be mistaken for a chauffeur after plunking down the cash for the Lexus of its day?
Unfortunately, many would be caught dead in black cars, because the only other use for the color was on hearses. For the American palette, however, especially on sports cars, black was de rigeur. First-gen Celicas came in Orion Turquoise and Scarlett Prominence, but it took until 1975, after prompting from a Toyota USA exec, for the Celica to debut in black. The story is detailed on Toyota’s Open Road Blog.
Similarly, while Datsun 240Zs were decked out in New Sight Orange and Sunshine Yellow, the first black Z-car didn’t appear until 1978, with the special edition Black Pearl 280Z, which, after a resounding success, persuaded Datsun to come out with the “Black Gold” 280ZXs for 1979.
You may remember Brian Baker from an article we did on his Honda T500F. One of the most passionate enthusiasts we’ve had the pleasure of meeting, Brian Baker was the first person to come to mind when Richard Chang of the New York Times approached us, looking for a subject to profile for his series, “Auto Ego.” It’s great to see Brian get the recognition he deserves (he also previously appeared in Road & Track when the S2000 first launched), although we like to think that appearing in Japanese Nostalgic Car was the greatest honor of all.
Be sure to check out the audio slideshow for great pictures and to hear Brian take his S600 to a 9500rpm redline we thought would never come.
Brian Baker of Formula H Motorworks recently hosted his annual Labor Day weekend gathering of classic Hondas at his shop and was kind enough to send us some pictures. The green Accord hatchback (far right) was purchased in Minnesota with only 1,900 miles on it! It now has about 4,000.
These two have matching hardtops and “65 HONDA” vanity plates.
Brian also reports that the owner of the yellow S800 drove to the Middletown, NY meet from Erie, PA, a seven hour drive each way.
Check out the shop. All Honda, all the time, even the power products in the bottom left corner. Thanks for the pics, Brian! [Formula H]
Automakers often resurrect famous model names from their past to inject some excitement into their lineups. Sadly, this often has the unintended effect of diluting the legacy of the original and spotlighting how glaringly unlike its namesake the current car is. A Dodge Charger with four doors? A Chevy Malibu with, um, anything? In Japan, sometimes they kill off a model name just for the heck of it. Toyota Corona to Toyota… Premio? Allion?
Fortunately, the Honda S2000 suffers from none of that. Like the S500, S600 and S800 before it, the S2000 is a taut, agile sports car. Both are open-top two-seaters and both power the rear wheels for motion. They even have the same sky-high redline, even though the two were separated by a span of 30 years.
Earlier this year, the Honda S2000 CR (for Club Racer) debuted at the New York Auto Show. With only 2000 units to be produced, it was supposed to be a North American exclusive, at least according to the reps at the show. But it has come to our attention that Honda will be debuting a suspiciously similar-looking S2000 Type-S in Japan soon. Absolutely no details exist at this point except for this photo. It’s said that this limited edition will be the final sayonara for the long-toothed roadster, and so far no news of a replacement has surfaced. Hopefully it won’t take another 30 years.
If you don’t know by now that comedian and late night talk show host Jay Leno is a car collector extraordinaire, then we hope the alien probing wasn’t too painful and welcome you back to planet Earth. The great thing about Leno is that he’s not just some rich guy who throws money at the latest horsepower-soaked auction queen to pad his collection. The man knows and loves machines, and works on everything he owns, from Stanley Steamer to Fiat Topolino.
One of the things we love about vintage Japanese cars (although this tends to apply to all vintage cars) is the wild colors that adorned their sheetmetal. In contrast, everything on the road today is “champagne” or some hue between silver and gray.
Unfortunately, many would be caught dead in black cars, because the only other use for the color was on hearses. For the American palette, however, especially on sports cars, black was de rigeur. First-gen Celicas came in Orion Turquoise and Scarlett Prominence, but it took until 1975, after prompting from a Toyota USA exec, for the Celica to debut in black. The story is detailed on 
Automakers often resurrect famous model names from their past to inject some excitement into their lineups. Sadly, this often has the unintended effect of diluting the legacy of the original and spotlighting how glaringly unlike its namesake the current car is. A Dodge Charger with four doors? A Chevy Malibu with, um, anything? In Japan, sometimes they kill off a model name just for the heck of it. Toyota Corona to Toyota… Premio? Allion?
