Honda S500, S600, S800: the highest revving sports car, Revelations with Jason Cammisa, Ep. 04

It s hard to imagine a world without Honda and Lamborghini, but they both first started making cars in the early 1960s. Honda s firstever passenger car (its first car was actually the T360 truck ) was first shown in 1962 as the Sports 360 and Sports 500 prototypes with 356 and 492cc fourcylinders. The S500 made it to production a year or so later with a slightly larger 531cc four, which was eventually supplemented by the 606cc S600 and the 791cc S800. The aluminum engine was the highlight of this tiny roadster (and coupe), with DOHC, hemispherical combustion chambers, and a rollerbearing 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 passengercar engine has beat even today. The car itself was a marvel of simplicity and elegant engineering, with chaindrive independent suspension (later replaced by a conventional solid axle), a 4 or 5speed synchronized trans