Last month we discussed the 1984 Honda HP-X concept car that had been restored. Honda called the HP-X its first concept car, but there had been others before it. Take the Honda XXX, for example, a bizarre three-wheeled vehicle that was shown at the 1983 Tokyo Motor Show.
Very little information about the Honda XXX has survived. What we do know is that the car was front-wheel-drive with two fore wheels and one aft wheel. The jet fighter canopy was hinged on one side and swung open like a gullwing to give the driver access to the single-seat cockpit. You’d expect a yoke inside, but the driver would have controlled the car with a regular steering wheel.
Curiously, it appears to have different wheels between the snapshot from the Tokyo Motor Show and the catalog image. One reason Honda may not have considered it a concept “car” is that it was displayed alongside Honda motorcycles at the Tokyo Motor Show. It may have even been a creation of the motorcycle division. Technically the XXX predates the Honda HP-X, and though it would be nice to see it restored as well, its doubtful that the three-wheeler has survived all these years.
Looks like a smoothed-over Messerschmitt KR170 to me. These, designed by Fritz Fend, were built by Messerschmitt when Germany viable transportation after the war. Pretty successful little micro-mini that DID have a 4-wheeled version as well, the Tiger.
Honda SHOULD have made the Slingshot
or Honda Project 2&4 a real product