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Honda Z600 Coupé - the bonsai city coupé that hardly anyone knows about

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Created on October 12, 2017

Reading time 5min

Written by:

Bruno von Rotz

Photos:

Bonhams

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Honda

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Bob DuHamel Rsduhamel - CC BY-SA 3.0

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Archiv

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Bonhams

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Honda

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Bob DuHamel Rsduhamel - CC BY-SA 3.0

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Archiv

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Honda Z600 (1972) - definitiv kompakt

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Honda Z600 (1972) - hierzulande kaum je anzutreffen

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Honda Z600 (1972) - kompakt und ideal für die Stadt

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Honda Z600 (1972) - 312 cm lang ist der kompakte Honda

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Honda Z600 (1972) - sportliches Aussehen

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Honda Z600 (1972) - kein Scheunenfund!

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Honda Z600 (1972) - das Heckfenster lässt sich zwecks Beladung öffnen

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Honda Z600 (1972) - für das Reserverad gibt es eine eigene Öffnung

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Honda Z600 (1972) - sportliches Interieur, sogar einen Drehzahlmesser gibt es

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Honda Z600 (1972) - der Tacho reicht bis 160 km/h

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Honda Z600 (1972) - serienmässiges Zweiwellen-Radio

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Honda Z600 (1972) - luftgekühler Zweizylinder, längs eingebaut

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Honda Z600 (1972) - Spaltmasse?

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Honda Z600 (1972) - Honda-Z-Zeichen

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Honda N 600 (1967) - baugleich mit dem N 360 bis auf den Motor

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Honda N 600 (1967) - optisch unterschieden sich N 360 und N600 kaum

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Honda N 600 (1967) - in der Schweiz statt der N 360 Variante verkauft

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Honda Z600 Coupé (1972) - japanischer Verkaufsprospekt

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Honda Z600 Coupé (1972) - je weniger man ausgibt ... (Werbung)

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Honda Z600 Coupé (1972) - all dies unter einem Dach (Werbung)

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Honda Z600 Coupé (1972) - "Evil Tweety" in Bonneville im Jahr 2009

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Summary

Around 15,000 Honda Z600 Coupés were built in Japan between 1971 and 1974, only a few of them circulated here and today they are practically completely forgotten. The small car had a lot to offer in terms of technology and could carry four people and some luggage. This report is dedicated to the mostly orange-colored Honda Z600 and shows it in many pictures from today and in advertising from back then.

This article contains the following chapters

From the "Kei Car" to the American coupé
High-tech for the bonsai coupé
Rotary organ
The Isetta of the seventies?
One of the few survivors
Further information

Estimated reading time: 5min

Preview (beginning of the article)

What should the ideal city car look like, asked smog- and traffic jam-plagued drivers in the early seventies. Honda had the answer and it was called the "Z", or more precisely the Honda Z 600. The small car, which was advertised as a coupé, was only 3.12 meters long and yet it offered space for four people and sophisticated engine technology. And it was content with six to eight liters of petrol per 100 km and the smallest parking spaces. 45 years ago! Honda began marketing a four-seater small car called the N360 as early as 1967. This was a so-called "Kei Car", i.e. a light/compact vehicle that was taxed particularly favorably in Japan. The type designation referred to the displacement of the air-cooled two-cylinder engine, which was only 354 cm3. For export markets, the N360 was accompanied by the N600, which had 598 cm3 and could therefore accelerate more quickly. Courageous motoring journalists accelerated the small car to over 120 km/h!

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