If you utter the words Honda City to any enthusiast of Japanese cars, the first thing their brains will map to is the foldable Motocompo bike that lived in its trunk. Although it’s the most recognized execution of the bike-in-car concept, it’s apparently not the first. A decade and a half earlier, Honda introduced the same idea in the S600 Coupé.
In a video titled simply “New Japanese Sports Car Demonstration” from 1965, a man shows off the then-new Honda S600 Coupé’s many attributes. Special care is taken to point out the four individual Keihin carburetors and the fact that you can fit a full set of golf clubs in the passenger seat. Why would you put the golf clubs in the passenger seat and not the trunk?
That’s because there’s an entire Honda Monkey taking up the S600’s cargo area. To be fair, it’s not as clever as the Motocompo because the Monkey has no foldable parts. It has only a detachable handlebar that can be easily screwed on, tool-free, with knobs.
It also looks to be a bit unwieldy though as the man unloads the 111-pound bike from the trunk. However, once he gets it out and the handlebars on, he can zoom off to his golf game with clubs slung around his shoulder. It’s not quite as elegant as the City and Motocompo pairing, but it gets the job done.
