Say Hello To The Honda S660, A Cute Kei Sports Car You Can't Buy Outside Japan

It’s often said that the grass is greener on the other side, and that we always want what we can’t have. Well that must be true because I have an overwhelming urge to travel to Japan and bring back one of these adorable little S660 kei cars from Honda.

You see, the problem is that it’s only available in Japan, and unless Honda fancies bringing it up to European/American crash regulations we won’t be seeing it here at all. Still, we can ogle it and find out exactly what we’re missing.

The styling is kind of Honey, I Shrunk The NSX, and it looks absolutely brilliant. In miniature, those aggressive wraparound headlights take on a cuter form, reminiscent of a kitten getting ready to pounce. The performance is anything but NSX-like, though.

Kei regulations, which also state cars cannot be more than 3.4m long or 1.48m wide, restrict the engine to a whopping 660cc. Honda has fitted a three-cylinder petrol engine which feeds 63bhp to the rear wheels through a sporty six-speed manual.

Apparently Honda’s engineers had fun driving at the forefront of their minds while building the car, so that manual should be your priority over the optional seven-speed CVT. Yes, you read that correctly; Honda’s CVT system allows the driver to dictate when they ‘shift’ while in sports mode via flappy paddles, with the engine holding onto revs longer than it normally would. It’s quite interesting as you get the efficiency of a CVT, while also being able to rev the nuts off it when the mood takes you.

Honda reckons it’ll shift 800 little drop tops each month at a cost of £11,000 each. A lightweight, mid-engined, rear-wheel drive car with sporty pretensions… sounds like a recipe for greatness. We might have to start a petition to get them on sale over here…