I Bought a Baby Honda NSX!

I bought this little Honda s660 from an auction in Japan it cost me just under £1,000 all in to buy it fees for buying it to ship it all the taxes and import Duty and the work required to convert it for use in the UK and register it here as well however I've been having to wait for all the relevant paperwork to come through before I can actually drive it on the road but look at last it's arrived which means that finally I can drive this thing and so in this video I'm going to review my very own Honda s660 and even compare its performance to one of the other Japanese cars I own hopefully I won't be [Music] disappointed what exactly is a Honda s660 well it's a little mid-engine sports car a baby NSX it was built between 2015 and 2022 this is actually a 2016 model year now it was very popular in Japan 40,000 were built in total however here in the UK it's very rare there are currently only three for sale online now if you compare that to one of my other cars by Porche 11 GT3 RS there are actually 28 of those currently on sale so what exactly is a k car a k car is a uniquely Japanese ultra compact car category designed to meet strict regulations on size and performance these cars offer significant tax and insurance Brakes in Japan making them very affordable to own and operate known for their Nimble handling and clever designs K cars like the Honda beat Suzuki capuccino and dihatsu Cobin even made it to the UK Market where their love for their quirky compact charm and and fuel efficiency and they all have one thing in common their engine capacity look at this little thing it's a 660c 3 cylinder turbo petrol puts out a whopping 64 horsepower and 101 newm of torque drives the rear wheels only by either a six-speed manual gearbox which is what this car has or a CVT automatic anyway doesn't sound like a lot of performance really does it but the car is light it weighs in at just 830 kilos so what does does that mean in terms of acceleration let's see how quick it can go from nor to 60 MPH can use my specialist timing gear here we [Applause] go come on little car it's not quick 11. 24 seconds do you know what this really doesn't feel that much quicker than my Suzuki jimy actually that gives me an idea I'm going to drag race my little Honda S6 60 against my Suzuki jimney to see what difference there is over the standing quarter mile I'm hoping it's quite substantial but I fear that it might not be the Suzuki jimy has a 1. 5 L natur aspirated 4-cylinder petrol Engine with 101 horsepower and 130 new M of torque it drives the rear wheels for a 5-speed manual gearbox the car weighs in at 1,135 kg now before we race I'm just going to do a quick sound check so this is the Honda it's actually all right let's listen to the [Music] jimy I don't really think this is any better hopefully it's better than the drag race three 2 he's off the line before me come on s660 there's literally no power the top end I'm easing pass but there these car just dies come [Applause] on I'm winning but not by loads Victory not The Sweetest Victory the s660 did standing quar Mile in 18.

5 seconds whereas the Suzuki jimy talk 19. 4 seconds so both are embarrassingly slow but like with the jimy speed isn't what matters a large part of the s660 is appeal is actually it stinky cuteness I think it's a really cool looking car I like the front design so narrow look it's like one pace wide it's also very very low you've got 15in alloy wheels at the front these are diamond cut moving down the side there's some fake ventory there that doesn't really lead anywhere you've also got a taret top and contrasting roof bars there in Black you've got a vent there which once again doesn't really lead anywhere then at the back you've got a 16in alloy wheel and actually I'm going do this look it is one two Giant Steps long around the back you got these sort of flying buttresses reminds me of the Porsche Spider RS you got this large light design here it's all integrated with this light bar and you got silly number plate down there you get a single exhaust now in 2020 they actually updated the design with some revised bumpers front and rear some new LED headlights and some different allo World designs and really other than that it remained largely and changed throughout its life and I have to say here in the UK it absolutely stands out and that's why I wanted one however one of the problems with this car being so rare in the UK is that if you want to buy a used one you don't have much Choice that's why I actually imported mine from Japan you have about 50 of them online on auction each day and there's plenty of options in terms of manual or automatic and different trim levels so I really recommend importing one like I did and I used autocom Japan now their fees are really good so it was £400 to import this car shipping was only £700 on top of their fee and they did all the hard work they found the car they bid on it and they organized for it to be taken from the auction to the port so it could be shipped to the UK it was so easy so I highly recommend using autocom Japan if you want to import a car to the UK or wherever else you may live now if you want to do that follow the link in the description of this video or the Ping comment to go straight to autocom Japan alternatively just click on the pop out Banner appearing in the top right hand corner of the screen or you can scan the QR code on screen now if you're watching on smart TV by using your mobile phone to go to their website so this is a rather special car a small mid-engine sports car so super rare here in the UK but the question is does it actually handle like a Mid Engine sports car should well do you know what it really does now even though the engine is rather light and it's so close to you that you're pretty much wearing it like a backpack you do notice the effect of its position when you bung this car into a corner especially if you're doing it on the brakes you can feel the momentum of that engine just helping the car rotate and it just makes it feel agile and playful this car proves it you don't need loads of power or to be going that quick to have fun it delivers now if you want you can turn the stability control off and it'll probably go a bit sideways but because it's got a short wheelbase I'll be a little bit wary about that cuz it could quite easily just change ends on you what's great about this car is just how small it is so you can really play about with it on the public road and you know if you have tractors or buses or stuff coming down the other way down the narrow road you don't feel worried because there's just so much room for you another thing about it is just the lightness that really does just influence the way this car feels to drive it makes it responsive it makes it feel agile and you've actually got quite a lot of grip because the TS aren't having to deal with a lot of mass it really is good fun and the steering is very very responsive and direct though I've noticed that on my car the steering wheel seems slightly off center so while it tracks straight look when you're go straight the steering wheel's at an angle are and it's a bit annoying so I'm going to get that looked at another thing I've noticed there's quite a bit of scuttle shake so as you drive over bumps you get the steering wheel kind of like shaking in your hands the windscreen shakes a little bit because the chassis isn't all that rigid now you're probably noticing it by some vibrations in this camera that's a minor issue and I can forgive this car of that because otherwise it's just such a joy to drive and one of the highlights has to be the gearbox so I think this is one of the very best manual gearboxes I've ever tried it's better than the one in my MX5 it's better than the one in my Garis I even think it might be better than the one in the new Porsche 91 St this little Honda also what helps the pedal position spot on for heel and toe so I end up just heel and towing even when I don't need to so i' be like oh yeah I think I do definitely need to break here and change down even though there's no need but I'm just going to do it anyway cuz LS LS another thing you use this gearbox a little bit more than you might otherwise because while it does show you that the engine will rev to 72,000 RPM there's really no point going past 52,000 RPM I mean if you have a look at the torque curve and the power curve for this engine you'll see it just drops off a cliff after about 52,000 RPM that's one of the reason I'm going to tune it I'm going to fit an upgraded turbo to it to get 100 horsepower out of it and it make the car a bit more Revy and to make sure you don't miss out on that video subscribe to this channel okay that video be coming soon but I don't mind as it is standard because you're just short shift and you get to hear the the blow off from the turbo it's so much fun it does make me wonder though how much quicker is this car in a roll on compared to my Suzuki jimney let's find out now I'm going to test the in gear pulling power of this car I'm going to do a rolling rce from 30 miles hour in third gear over the half mile against the jimney see if there's much of a difference remember I've got turbo torque let's get up to 30 m hour in third 3 2 1 go oh look that's the turbo effect there pulling on that jimy so easily now so far ahead I've hit the limiter I am much happier about that than the drug race but am I happy with how this car feels to sit in when I'm not racing the the layout in here is pretty sporty if you look at the swooping Dash design the way that you feel cocooned as the driver this main center console here leading into the separation between you and your front passenger and look good oldfashioned buttons for the climate control which are nice and easy to use then up here you have this digital screen I don't actually know how you operate all this but it does have something interesting on it look you've got your throttle position you've got your breake pressure there and that is a g meter so you don't see many G's being pulled by this car then you got this driver's display here so you got digital Speedo then you've got a analog rev counter around the outside of it then some other gauges and if you press this button here to go into sports mode even though it just says select you then have your dolls turning red you get a little gauge for the turbo boost to show you how much boost pressure you've got plus it improves the throttle response apparently but not all is well here you see in certain places the quality feels a little bit cheap and Scratchy not convinced by the fake carbon fiber here on the doors nor here on the steering wheel and then there's the fact that I have no idea what it says on the infotainment system so you cycle through the different menus but it's it's all in Japanese and yes I might have USB input there and HDMI and Bluetooth but I don't know how to actually configure the phone and if I want listen to the radio well unfortunately the Japanese operate on a slightly different wavelength a wave band to ours so I just get nothing but then there's the matter of storage so it's rather sparse in this cabin so there's a cup holder there which look it's actually okay for one cup but when you're driving it's quite hard to reach it and sometimes elbow it there's a bit of storage there where you're going to have to put your key also while the glove box looks quite big from the outside when you look inside it there isn't actually that much space Here's the manual all in Japanese so I'm going to have to use Google Translate to figure out what the heck is going on and this is very Japanese as well watch this normally your indicators would be on this side wouldn't they it's not your WIP as your indicators on this side which means that as I'm jumping in and out of different cars often when I want to turn left or right I end up just operating the windscreen wipers which isn't very helpful to other drivers then there is the matter of the seat so these seats are lovely very nice very comfy they're not too tight they hold the body really well but it is quite snug in here so I can fit but let's just try it with Louis Lou is over 6 foot so let me just get this camera right Lou do you want to get in see if you can get comfortable you can slide the seat back and recline it does it go back far enough for you yeah that's not too bad so you can just about fit but there is something toilet people might find problematic now one of the things about this being such a small car is that your head is above the windows and not that much lower than the wind screen the wind's been buffeting the top of my hair like that and I'm not particularly tall taller people are going to have their head above the wind screen and they end up with a really bad hair do now I'm going a bit slower I can lower the windows doesn't matter so much not so much buffeting when you go slowly now this does illustrate another benefit of the this car's dinky Dimensions when you're just negotiating driving around town it really does just help being in a smaller car I think cars just got too big also the cutesy look of it gives you plenty of leeway with other drivers they don't find you threatening they quite like the car and so they're more like to let you out it's easy to find a parking space as well I'm going to go in a space that isn't a space look plenty of room and still loads of space for me to open the door no I'm not going to park it cuz you're not supposed to but I'm just illustrating the point and while it is a sports car the suspension never feels overly fir it's just Tor just right it doesn't bounce you about when you're driving over PT and stuff like that and the visibility is so good cuz it's so small let's just check out how maneuverable it is I don't know what the Turning circle is on this car but we'll just test it there we go I'd say it's pretty damn tight then there's the brakes you see because they're not having to slow a heavy vehicle they just feel right and responsive not grabby and just oh smooth I'll tell you one thing this car just teaches you what a negative effect white has on a vehicle but while the brakes feel good are they actually any good let's find out now let's do a break test against the jimy so we're going to get up to 60 M hour and then when we reach the line full emergency stop see which car stops in the shortest distance this should absolutely batter the jimney it is lighter and it's lower and its brakes just F sportier so there's 60 okay here we go that is a huge difference but there is a benefit to that jimney over this it might not be large that car but at least you can carry stuff in it whereas this isn't so great when it comes to luggage you see the only real storage space you have on this car is underneath the Bonnet and it's in here though this is actually designed for holding the roof so if you have the roof down you cannot really carry anything with you question is though how long does it take to fit this roof so what I'm going to do is show you that now so start the timer don't know why I'm doing music okay just pull this over here like this on the slot go in here and then the last thing to do I'll just whiz round and you'll see this you just have to latch this little thing to hold it in place so now let's find out what this car is like to drive with the roof up it does feel quite claustrophobic in here I've only got about that much head room people over 64 are going to be touching their head on the hood also this bar here this roof bar is rather close to the side of your head and when you got the roof up you do notice the road noise quite a bit it sort of reverberates around the cabin and that's more annoying than the buffeting sound of the wind when you got the roof off because you know you can forgive it that don't you cuz you got the sun in your face and the wind in your hair what's not so bad though is because you got six gears cruising along at 50 I'm pulling just over 2,000 RPM whereas my jimney only has five gears so it's engine just feels strained whenever you go over 40 m an hour as for the economy well it's better than the jimney so it's averaging 8.