It's hard to imagine a world without Honda and Lamborghini, but they both first started making cars in the early 1960s.
The S500 was the second production car from Honda (and its first passenger automobile), released in 1963, following the T360 truck into production by four months. It was a larger-displacement variant of the S360 roadster which, though developed for sale in 1962, was never produced.
The S500 made it to production a year or so later with a slightly larger 531-cc four, which was eventually supplemented by the 606-cc S600 and the 791-cc S800.
The aluminum engine was the highlight of this tiny roadster (and coupe), with DOHC, hemispherical combustion chambers, and a roller-bearing crankshaft. Its design allowed it to rev to the moon, up to 9500 rpm in the case of the S600, a redline that no other production passenger-car engine has beat even today.
The car itself was a marvel of simplicity and elegant engineering, with chain-drive independent suspension (later replaced by a conventional solid axle), a 4- or 5-speed synchronized transmission, rack-and-pinion steering, and (later) front-wheel disc brakes.
It was also available in red and white, two colors previously illegal in Japan, as they were reserved for police and emergency vehicles. Soichiro Honda fought the government on this, and won. This is one of many of his victories against the Man, and the Honda Sports series was one of his many victories against the challenges of engineering a car.
Honda S600
The Honda S600 is an automobile manufactured by Honda. It was launched in March 1964. Available as a roadster – bearing strong resemblance to the Honda S500 – and as a fastback coupé – introduced in March 1965 – the S600 was the first Honda available in two trim levels.
During its production run up to 1966, the model styling would remain pretty much the same, with the most notable changes coming to the front grille, bumper, and headlights.
Honda S800
The S800 is a sports car from Honda. Introduced at the 1965 Tokyo Motor Show, the S800 replaced the successful Honda S600 as the company's image car. With a redline of 9,500 rpm, it is one of the highest revving production sports car.
The S800 competed with the Austin-Healey Sprite, MG Midget, Triumph Spitfire and Fiat 850 Spider.