Honda Roadster

Starting a new thread for the new Honda Road Star by reposting the introduction from my main build thread. https://mazdaroadster.net/showthread.php?821-Road-Star

It's not as if I've run out of Miata things to do as I still have a list much longer than I'd like, but coming up on 25 years of Miatas being my tinker toy and over 10 years with the current one, for the past year I've had an ever increasing itch to try something new. The thought has crossed my mind many a time to pick up another Miata and do something different than the current build and stick to what I'm familiar with, and have tons of parts for, but I really felt like diversifying to something actually new.

I decided I wanted a classic. I'm not much of a rotary fan, so that rules out most classic Mazdas. I've never been into Toyotas. 15 years ago I had a neighbor with a Honda S800 coupe and I would see it in the parking garage once in a while. Great looking and so interesting, but most appeared out of my price range, especially the coupes. So that leaves Datsun. But the 240z have skyrocketed in value and Skylines have always been up there. There's always been something about the 510 that I'm not very fond but I'm not sure what it is. That leaves the Roadster, which would make perfect sense. They've started to creep up in value as well and while I love the front end, the rear is only meh. But that was probably going to be what I could fit in the budget.

The tall windshield 68+ was out of the question, it had to be an earlier low one. That eliminated quite a bit of the market. However I noticed earlier ones were usually cheaper than their later counterparts. Good for me since that's what I was looking for. After much searching, I would come across the occasional Honda and I noticed that same trend in them also. The later cars with the bigger engines and more development had more demand. Also, the roadsters were quite a bit less than their much more rare coupe brothers, although compared to the Datsuns any form is pretty rare. I expanded my search a little on the hopes I could get lucky but after some research I learned that their market was quite quirky due to their relative complexity and lack of parts. That tempered my dreams a bit. But Hondas are powered by dreams.









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A couple of months ago I finally took the plunge. I never bought a car without seeing it in person, nor had one delivered, but it worked out very well. After waiting a week to get here from Indianapolis, it was a reality.

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It's not perfect, but that's not what I was looking for. It seems like a solid driver quality with just a few things needed, in the perfect color Ivory over red. It's an early 1964, one of the first few thousand cars Honda ever built, and one of only a couple hundred currently in the states. Built the same year Honda entered its first Formula 1 car.

After a couple of months of ownership I'm only just about to begin, because just like the Miata things always take me 10 times longer than it should, but the first drive was a blast. 606cc of fury, lucky to have 50hp today from its 57hp when new. It's the complete antithesis of my 5967cc 425hp Miata, exactly what I was hoping for.

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There's a handful of things I knew needed to be done to it prior to the purchase. First little project was the fuel filler cap. They have a very cool locking flip up lid, however the lock on mine is broken and was modified to work without it. A consequence of that was that is was no longer staying shut.

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For now I was able to very slightly grind the teeth that latch onto the lid so it grabs enough to hold it shut but with just enough of a twist and tug it will pop open.

In the future I hope to be able to reverse the mod made to the locking mechanism and then properly modify the lock to work without a key.

What an awesome project!

It was actually a bit winterish in CA last month so I haven't done much with the S600, but before the weather changed I took a nice drive around town.

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Backroads are much more comfortable than the freeway :lol: Not only due to the size (it's just over half the length of my 2500 long bed), but it was never designed for freeway speeds. I think it can get up 75mph, but it's also turning 7500rpm at that speed. 45mph already feels like 75mph anyway :8):

I need to do a little maintenance and then we'll be back on the road.

It looks like I could sit on top of it and pedal it around the yard.

its....beautiful. Looking forward to this thread.

The Honda probably gets a little better gas mileage then the truck that its setting next too also.