Honda Motor Co. is one of the greatest success stories of the post war motor industry. Soichiro Honda began making piston rings for the aircraft industry in the late 1930s. The flourishing factory was completely destroyed by bombing during WWII.
The Honda S660 is the spiritual successor to the 1990’s Honda Beat, itself a descendent of Honda’s first sports car, the 1963 Honda S500 roadster. The result of a four year competition between 400 engineering graduates at Honda, the winning design was first seen as a prototype at the 2013 Tokyo Motor Show, entering production in 2015.
Honda Motor Co. traces its automobile roots back to 1959. The S800 was introduced to the world at the 1965 Tokyo Motor Show, and would replace the successful S600.
At 125.8 inches in length and 1,410 pounds, the Today was Honda’s first “kei” class passenger car since the Honda Life was discontinued ten years prior. Although it only offers 31 horsepower, the light weight and small size made it popular with many Japanese urban dwellers.
During the 1970s light, rugged utility cars were very popular with the public in Europe. Vehicles in this category included the Volkswagen Thing, the Citroën Méhari, the Mini Moke, and this model, the Honda Vamos.
Honda was becoming increasingly well-known in the USA for its line of fun and reliable motorcycles in the 1950s. The N600 was the first sedan Honda sold in the United States in 1967. The same car with a smaller 360cc engine satisfied Japan’s Kei (light automobile) class, and was popular there.
To celebrate their 50th Anniversary, Hot Wheels went on tour, appropriately titled, The 50th Anniversary Legends Tour, in 2018. The mission was to visit several cities across the United States and to select one vehicle to immortalize as a Hot Wheels 1/64th scale die-cast car.
Tianjin Huali Motor Co. is a Chinese joint venture between Malaysian Lion Group and Tianjin Automotive Industries. This company was established in the early 1990s and manufactures light pick up trucks and mini vans in China.
IFA is not a brand name of a particular automobile, but rather the state-owned company to which all the automobile factories belonged (such as Audi, DKW, Horch, Wanderer, and Phanomen). The f9 was jointly produced by Horsch (who produced the bodywork) and Audi (who assembled the vehicle) and was based on a pre-war DKW design. This rare convertible IFA is a very close copy of the DKW Auto Union 1000.
Ferdinand Innocenti’s company started in 1931 as a major steel tubing manufacturer. His patented “Innocenti pipe” is still used in scaffolding today. Before the war, the company also developed heavy press machinery. After World War II, Innocenti was mainly known for their Lambretta scooters until they began production of a license-built Austin A40 in 1960.
Introduced as the Inter at the 1953 Paris Show by the distributors A. E. M. W. (Ateliers Electro-Mechaniques de la Seine of Saint-Ouen), this non-traditional auto-scooter was designed and constructed by French aircraft builders S.N.C.A.N. (Societe Nationale de Construction AeroNautique).
Iota was an off-shoot of the Bristol Aircraft Motor Club and offered a range of parts, up to a complete car, to encourage the growth of 500cc single-seater racing, which later became Formula 3.
Based mechanically and aerodynamically on the racing D-Type, the E-type was originally conceived as a race car, but with the changes in Jaguar’s attitudes on racing during development, it became a street car.
The Jarret is unique because the vehicle is driven entirely by an electronic joystick, making this the first drive-by-wire vehicle ever produced. Two SRM electric motors are directly connected to the each rear wheel; the vehicle is steered by changing the relative speed of either one of the motors.
