Honda S660 specs and drawings leaked: Brace for awesome!

In reply to pinchvalve:

Hiragana is their basic alphabet, each one corresponding to a consonant vowel pair or a vowel. Katakana is the alphabet that mirrors hiragana, but it's used for foreign words (essentially). As for kanji, there are a million-zillion of them, and they're each representative of a word or expression, there's apparently some rhyme and reason to them, but I don't know nearly enough about them to tell you anything about that. Most people learn hiragana + katakana first (there are like ~90 for both writing sets) and then you start to learn Kanji achieving some level of proficiency.

Back on topic, I doubt it'll make it to the states, but maybe. I want to see the new Civic type-R much more than that thing.

pinchvalve wrote:

moparman76_69 wrote: There are three parts to Japanese written language.

Not to derail the thread, but really? Wow. How does that work? I am fascinated. I will have to do some Googling.

The first Japanese writing system was simply using Chinese characters - that's kanji.

Trouble is, there's somewhere around 20,000 of these. The Japanese Ministry of Education recommends memorizing somewhere around 1000 to 5000 - I can't remember which. Obviously, that's a pain. The Japanese came up with a phonetic alphabet * that can be used to spell out their words. For some reason, they have two parallel versions. Hiragana is normally used to spell out traditional Japanese words, whereas katakana is used for words of foreign origin. The two alphabets have the same set of sounds.

• Technically, it's a syllabary instead of an alphabet. Each character is a syllable instead of a single sound.

The spec sheet is pretty tiny there and I can't be sure, but it appears to include all three alphabets.

There's also romaji - spelling out Japanese words in the Roman alphabet. That's usually to make it easier for gaijin to pronounce them.

Dear Honda.

Please build this car and sell it in the USA because I have cash in hand right now to buy it. Otherwise, I will just wait for the Beat to be legal in the USA in a few years.

Snowballs chance. I bet our mandated emissions and safety stuff weigh close to 1800 lbs!

GameboyRMH wrote: Here's how the concept looks:

Okay, a hell of a lot better than the drawings. Still not sure I'm a fan though.

jimbob_racing wrote: Dear Honda. Please build this car and sell it in the USA because I have cash in hand right now to buy it. Otherwise, I will just wait for the Beat to be legal in the USA in a few years.

*sniff. I probably can't comfortably fit inside a Honda Beat.

They will be skiing in Hades before this comes to US shores.

Would like to see this in the U.S. But not holding my breath.

moparman76_69 wrote: There are three parts to Japanese written language.

actually four.

Kanji is what most people think of when it comes to Japanese written language. It is purely a symbolic language with no phonetics

Hiragana is a more native written language and is phonetic. It is more Rounded and curvey than Kanji or Katakana

Katakana is also a phonetic language, but is used for foreign words that have entered the Japanese language

And there is Romanji.. basically "roman" or English words with some modifications to make them fit in with japanese

Okay, the S660 is now on sale in Japan. The American Honda CEO said that he would fight for this car to come to the USA if people demand it. Who do I have to call 359 times a day to get this car in my Honda dealers showroom?

http://wot.motortrend.com/american_honda_ceo_wants_s660_concept_in_us_2013_tokyo.html

Start spamming their various facebook pages. I am.

Not holding my breath. Looks like a waste of time and money for Honda to modify it for the US market.

I think I might prefer one of these over an ND Miata...

They might be sold by me if they're cheap enough to be affordable to more than a handful of people here, no other reason they couldn't be.

I'm not sure who in the US wants a 63HP 1800lb car with marginally more carrying capacity than a Vespa yet still infinitely harder to park than one. Well, whom isn't already well served by a Vespa or a subway/backpack combo in this country.

Make it compete with a Lotus on power and that changes drastically.

At one point someone at Honda said that a US version could (would) be powered by a 1.0L version. The 63 hp thing has to do with the laws and I am certain that a US version would have over 100 ponies. Imagine this little guy with a honda equivalent of Ford's 1.0l ecoboost and a sportingly oriented transmission. Yes please. Something that makes a Toyota MR-S look heavy with more torque.

jimbob_racing wrote: Okay, the S660 is now on sale in Japan. The American Honda CEO said that he would fight for this car to come to the USA if people demand it. Who do I have to call 359 times a day to get this car in my Honda dealers showroom? http://wot.motortrend.com/american_honda_ceo_wants_s660_concept_in_us_2013_tokyo.html

Not really the way it works. Large companies invest huge dollars to create a in-house system that gathers "Voice of customer" information.The irony is that most of these systems are designed to filter out direct input as being mostly "WANT" noise from a client who really does not know what they NEED.

At the core of most of these voice of customer gathering juggernauts is the statement made by Theodore Levitt that claims "People don't want to by a quarter inch drill. They want a quarter inch hole".

So, what "hole" (jobs to be done) does this car fill? What demographic with a need to be fulfilled exist in large enough numbers that would justify spending a billion or so dollars of shareholders money? I will give you a hint, it is not the automotive enthusiast, because we are an anomaly...We as a group do WANT and NEED to buy quarter inch drills.

well.. if we cannot get the S660 here for road use.. how about importing a bunch for a "Spec660" race series?

It even rolls off the tongue nicely

Hey thanks for all the info on the Japanese language. Confusing as all get out, but very interesting.

As interesting as this car is, I am more interested in when Honda will sell us a Civic with decent horsepower and torque. I mean come on...the 1997 Type R had 195hp and today's Si has gained...10 hp? The Fiesta went from 63 to 197!

GameboyRMH wrote: Article says it's RWD. But now that you mention it, there probably is room in the front to do a dual-powertrain conversion...

Even if you doubled the power, it wouldn't be enough. :P

60hp? Seriously? You might as well cut the floorboard out and power it with your own two feet.

Boy, those doors look high! I know it's an ongoing trend, but I just can't stand the "sitting in a bathtub" feel. Judging by the photos, I'm not sure If my head would even be above the door!

Yeah, this is 66hp the same way that the various JDM super sports were 276hp. I'm sure Honda hand over heart swears that since it's a kei class car it will never have more than 66hp. And there's no way anyone would go to their local Autobacs and have it reflashed as soon as they take delivery. No way.

Also, the ecoboost 1L triple makes 125hp. I'm sure Honda could come up with something similar for the US market.

I wouldnt buy my wife a 66hp motorcycle,1800lbs and that power will suck.

sesto elemento wrote: I wouldnt buy my wife a 66hp motorcycle,1800lbs and that power will suck.

Don't forget the CVT it comes with!

I'm a Honda fancier and these days could care less about what they are doing. If I know Honda they will price it too high and shoot themselves in the foot.

NOHOME wrote: Not really the way it works. Large companies invest huge dollars to create a in-house system that gathers "Voice of customer" information.The irony is that most of these systems are designed to filter out direct input as being mostly "WANT" noise from a client who really does not know what they NEED.

Systems like this are how cars like the Pontiac Aztec make it to production, while sidestepping systems like this are how cars like the the 2016 Ford GT make it to production.