Honda · S500

Honda S500 (AS280)

Years: 1963–1964
Chassis: AS280
Drivetrain: FR

Image: Iwao from Tokyo, Japan / CC BY 2.0

Story

It used a roller chain for the final drive. Its design was by in-house designer Taisuke Mori and is said to have been heavily reworked by Soichiro Honda. Its production and sales period was extremely short.

Stories

At a company with no engineers who understood cars

When Nakamura joined, Honda made only motorcycles and had almost no engineers who understood cars. Soon after joining, Nakamura was put in charge of Honda R&D's automobile development unit and directed development of production cars such as the S500 and T360. He also became manager of the F1 team and was responsible for Honda's entry into F1.

Yoshio Nakamura

Chassis

Front

Double wishbone

Rear

Trailing arm

Curb weight: 675kg

Production plants

Hamamatsu Factory
Hamamatsu, Shizuoka

US import eligibility

Earliest cars: Eligible since October 198825 years after sales began in October 1963
Last cars: Eligible since 198925 years after sales ended in 1964 (month not recorded)

Eligibility depends on each car's month of manufacture on its build plate, not on the sale dates shown here (NHTSA).

Japanese cars by US import year →

Engineers

Yoshio Nakamura

Hometown: Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture

As head of the automobile development team at Honda R&D, he directed the development of production cars such as the S500 and T360. Former manager of the Honda F1 team.