Honda 1300 Coupe 9S (1970)
Publication: Motor Fan
Format: Dynamic Test Drive
Date: May 1970
Author: Shigeki Asaoka, Noriko Asaoka, Motor Fan Editorial Staff (uncredited)
Honda 1300 Coupe 9: Full of Frontier Spirit
The “Dynamic Test Drive” series has been well-received by readers, and is now in its fifth installment. The car model this time was decided to be Honda’s 1300 Coupe 9, and just as everyone was getting excited to start the test the next day, our protagonist, Shintaro Taki, ruptured his Achilles tendon. Our editorial team scrambled to find a replacement, and we were finally able to ask one of the racing world’s most prominent theoreticians, Shigeki Asaoka. We hope to see Taki return once he’s recovered, but this time we asked Shigeki Asaoka and his wife to test drive the Honda Coupe 9.
(Asaoka:) My senior colleague, Taki-san, has torn his Achilles tendon, so I’ve been asked to take on the role of pinch hitter. When I seriously think about writing my senior’s lofty test drive report in his place, it’s a heavy burden and a daunting task. It makes me depressed.
However, I too have devoted my entire life to racing. Hoping to contribute to the development of automobiles, I have devoted all of my energy, however insignificant, to challenging the possibilities in this field. In this spirit, I accepted the offer, thinking that I would give it my all, just as I have done in racing up until now, even though I am not sure if I can write something that will persuade readers in the same way as Taki-san.
Since I have accepted the position, I will not make any long-winded excuses about my lack of knowledge. People will see it, and I will do my best to earn their forgiveness.
I see, it’s a Honda car!
I was already at Fuji Speedway on the day of the test drive for some business, when Motor Fan arrived with a Honda Coupe 9. I had often seen this car in catalogs and magazines, but it was my first time seeing one in person. It was in the driver’s salon at Fuji Speedway that I first encountered it. At that moment, a nostalgic feeling struck me: “Ah, this is definitely a Honda car!”
The front view is bold, split into two halves with a central apex. It has the face of a challenger. When you think of Honda, this image of “challenging” is immediately associated with the company. It started with their motorcycles, and that image hasn’t been lost to this day. Not only the front view, but also the cantilever roof, the 20.5 degree rear window angle, etc., all say “Honda” from the first glance.
However, why does it look slightly smaller than the familiar 1300 sedan? Perhaps the curvature of the overall R angle has the effect of making the car next to it look larger, contrary to expectations during the design phase.
As my curiosity grew, I opened the door. Once again, I thought, “Ah, I thought so,” and settled into the seat. The steering wheel felt great in my hands. The size was just right. I focused my eyes on the dashboard. “So this is what they call a ‘flight cockpit…” I looked forward, reached out, and assumed a driving position. The gauges were very easy to read. It was the kind of thoughtful design that you would expect from Honda, a leader in the racing world.
When I was around 20 years old, when I wore the look of a grown-up on my face and was confident that I knew everything about cars, I probably would have jumped at the chance to own one as soon as it was announced.
Honda is also likely targeting a much younger demographic with this car.
Viewpoint: Mrs. Noriko Asaoka
When I started racing as a woman, I was driving a Honda S600. Taking part in this test drive, I was able to drive a Honda car for the first time in a long time, and it brought back so much nostalgia that I felt shivers. The first thing I felt when I sat in the seat was that it was not at all different than the Honda I had when I was racing three or four years ago. I have a “20-year-old younger brother” here who has been singing the praises of this Honda Coupe 9, and seeing it in person, I can understand his sentiment very well. The exterior and interior styling seem to incorporate all the latest trends–major manufacturers like Toyota and Nissan would never be able to go this extreme and avant-garde. I strongly felt that Honda’s design philosophy is still alive and well.
Outstanding seats and excellent visibility
There’s no point sitting and admiring the interior forever. So I prepared to set off from Fuji Speedway. I turned the key and started the engine. “Hmm… is this definitely air-cooled?” I checked with my editor just to be sure, and he said it was. Considering that, it’s quite quiet. I wouldn’t go far as to say it’s better than a regular water-cooled engine, but it’s quiet enough that it’s hard to believe it’s air-cooled. They must have put a lot of effort into it. The editor added that it’s an OHC system and I thought, “of course it is.” It’s a mechanism that is unique in the world.
Leaving Fuji, I turned onto a nearby dirt road. I didn’t push my speed too much, and started off at a regular driving pace. The seat felt great, just as it did when the car was stationary. The cushion fit my lower body perfectly, and it was very supportive, so even as I was moved up and down or swayed side-to-side, I didn’t slide around. The padding wasn’t particularly soft, but it wasn’t particularly hard either. The seatback was quite narrow, but the area under my shoulders was nicely concave, giving me the feeling that it was hugging my entire back.
In addition, visibility was excellent, again giving the same impression while driving as it had when the car was stopped. With long-nosed, sporty cars, it’s common to have to move your body around to compensate for poor visibility. However, with the Coupe 9, just by glancing up and down, you can see the road ahead and the gauges. The speedometer and tachometer are large, with the fuel gauge in the middle and the smaller amp and oil gauges on the left. It’s a simple and very easy-to-read layout.
Even without driving hard or at high speeds, you can tell that the shifting effort is light, and the engagement and disengagement are crisp and satisfying. It’s the complete opposite of the squishy feel of the Porsche-type gearboxes, and while some people like this and others dislike it, it’s perfect for my tastes. The “click-click” feeling gives you confidence. Here again, I strongly sensed the design influence of “young people’s preferences.”
Viewpoint: Mrs. Noriko Asaoka
The position of the shifter is very good, and it was easy to drive with the seat pulled forward to improve visibility. Usually, the shifter is positioned too far back, so even if you want to pull the seat farther forward, you can’t, and you end up having to push it backward to drive, but the Coupe 9 is unusual in that you can still operate the shifter even with the seat all the way forward. Also, it’s common in this type of car for the seat to be low for a woman, with the steering wheel in your line of sight, but I was surprised that it was so easy to see out of this car. I wonder if it’s designed for women…
The high-speed engine has been heavily modified
Apparently, the release of this coupe coincided with modifications to the 1300’s engine, with longer overlap time and a revised distributor, to improve flexibility and to make it more economical. While driving it, I could definitely feel the modifications. Even accelerating hard through first, second, and third gears, the engine speed doesn’t rise as quickly as previous Hondas. The redline starts at 7500rpm, but even using full throttle barely gets you there. Without even looking at the catalog, just from the feeling of driving it, I suspected that maximum torque was somewhere around 4500-4700rpm. Later, I looked it up, and it was rated at 11.5kgm at 5000rpm, which is indeed somewhat higher than other cars of the same class. However, compared to the NIII’s 3.2kgm at 7000rpm, it felt like a significant reduction in terms of high-speed character. (Note: maximum output is still a high 110ps at 7300rpm.)
Even so, the engine revs well. The power and acceleration are typical of Honda. I couldn’t help but think, perhaps it’s quite dangerous for someone who isn’t a particularly skilled driver. Humans have a troublesome instinct to want to go faster. In that respect, Hondas always give me satisfaction, though I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing…
I opened the engine compartment. Oh dear. Air-cooled engines are meant to be compact, but this 1300 engine is huge, more like a 1800cc or 2000cc engine. Looking closely, it appears to be a single-body, dual-air-cooled engine, but it’s clear that a great deal of attention has been paid to ‘silencing’ the engine. A thick cover encases the entire engine, which is what prevents it from being made compact.
The transmission, which brings out the engine’s performance, can be said to be a perfect match for this high-speed engine. The ratios are 3.446, 2.014, 1.367, and 1.000 for first, second, third, and fourth gear, which is slightly higher than cars in the same class. This matches well with the performance and brings out its full potential.
Viewpoint: Mrs. Noriko Asaoka
The engine runs very smoothly. I couldn’t help but wonder, with my feminine instincts showing, how durable it is if it runs so smoothly…
Too bad! The maneuverability makes you shake your head
After driving on dirt roads and completing the test drive assignment, I drove the Coupe 9 to my heart’s content over two days, going over Otome Pass, through Sengokuhara, and back on the Tomei Expressway. For me, it was more distance than I needed (about 400km).
Now, let’s move on to the main topic and get into what I think.
In terms of my preferences, I honestly don’t care much about interior comfort or exterior styling. That’s probably why I am into racing, because what I’m really interested in is power and handling. If you ask me what the true joy of racing is, it’s the constant pursuit of the limits and challenging the machines. I apologize for sounding like I think I know what I’m talking about, but I truly believe what I want to say next. It’s a big mistake to think that cars simply go where they are pointed naturally. It is the effort of all manufacturers, not just in Japan, but all around the world, who go to great lengths to make their cars follow the driver’s intended line.
The current situation is that we are somehow able to create cars that follow the driver’s intended line by accumulating experiments day after day to determine what is wrong with a car dynamically, and then improve it. The power of the racer, or rather the driver, plays a major role in this. What the driver feels during each test is essential to creating a safer car. In some ways, it is not an exaggeration to say that the feeling of a single driver determines everything.
When it came to high-speed driving, the first thing I noticed in the Coupe 9 was that it was a very difficult car to get a grasp of. Of course, I kept in mind the trendy FF mechanism while I drove. Even so, when I was winding through Otome Pass and around Gora, turning the steering wheel right and left, I felt that the way it turned and returned to its original position was not consistent.
To be specific, if you turn the wheel more than necessary, or if you anticipate it returning naturally to the straight-ahead position, it will remain in the turned position, even if only for a fraction of a second. If this is a fixed pattern and always happens consistently, then you can just adjust your driving accordingly. However, under repeated similar conditions, there just doesn’t seem to be one set way you should steer the car to get the intended result.
It took two days of intensive driving before I finally figured out the quirks of the car’s handling. I acknowledge that the FF mechanism itself is quite complicated, but even so, I couldn’t help but feel a little uneasy about this.
Of course, this may not have much of an impact on the average driver in normal driving. Perhaps my uneasiness is due to being overly nervous about the tough races at 200km/h and 300km/h?
However, this judgment led me to the following speculation: Perhaps this unstable handling was the result of insufficient testing. Despite all the painstaking effort, perhaps there were still some unresolved issues that could not be ironed out before the car was released onto the market. I’m not trying to make excuses, and I’m in no way saying that it’s a defective car. No car is built perfectly.
It’s the same in any organization. There’s always a fierce battle between engineers and salespeople. The balance between providing cars to users as quickly as possible and collecting as much data as possible to create an even more perfect car is what leads to the creation of cars like this. There must be some high-level judgment at play here that a simple person like me can’t understand.
However, I can’t help but feel that with minor modifications to improve the handling, as opposed to fundamental changes, they could have achieved much better stability. I have a friend who is an engineer at Honda. He is a very talented guy. Honda has many young engineers with great potential. I have heard him express the same opinions, and perhaps this is why I am greedy, wanting more from the car.
Of course, even if the fix is just a “small” correction, it’s not something you can just glance at and tell in an instant what the solution is. Even if a difference of just 1mm in the way the wheels are mounted can make a big difference in handling. That’s how difficult it is to make a car. So, even if it’s just a small, rather than fundamental, fix, it can sometimes take a long time, such as a year or two, to figure out the problem.
So, the manufacturer’s so-called corporate social conscience determines the limits of safety, compromises are made, and the product is commercialized. So, it’s true that I can’t just say I understand it after driving the car for a day or two. But since I agreed to at least write a test drive report for Motor Fan, it’s my responsibility to express everything that comes to mind.
If I may add, I felt that the relationship between the steering and the suspension was a little lacking. In other words, the trait we call tracking just didn’t feel right. It’s a slightly different nuance from the sharpness of the steering, but I got the feeling that the way the steering wheel was turned and the way the car turned were somehow inconsistent. It’s not that there was any play in the steering, it was just…
The rationality of the FF mechanism is unclear
I have given a rough outline of the appearance and driving feel, but after writing down all my thoughts, my overall conclusion is that I still don’t understand why this car had to be FF.
It is generally accepted that FR has an advantage in terms of maneuverability from a mechanical standpoint. The reasons for switching to FF can be summarized into two main points. 1) To keep the cabin the same size while reducing the exterior dimensions, and 2) To simplify the mechanism, making the design more rational.
There are probably other ways of looking at it, but I think those two points can at least be considered FF’s key strengths.
However, the interior of the Honda 1300 Coupe 9 did not feel particularly spacious, and the rationality of the simplified mechanism was not apparent from my time driving it.
Despite these two advantages, FF also has a disadvantage. Namely, the extreme characteristics of understeer and oversteer are combined at the limit. This is why FF is said to be difficult for amateurs, as stability is usually derived from weight distribution. Just looking at the suspension as one example, it will behave differently when driving at a steady speed, accelerating, braking, turning, turning while accelerating, and turning while braking–all of these conditions will lead to different situations. Therefore, it is necessary to make the characteristics suit all of these conditions, so to speak. This is extremely difficult.
I said earlier that even small things can take a considerable amount of time and effort, and this is why.
Although it’s not directly related to the issue of rationality, this is something that can perhaps be same more broadly about this coupe. That is, it has been equipped with the latest and most fashionable mechanisms, but somehow they didn’t all fit together perfectly. Whether it was the FF mechanism, the air-cooling, the coupe style, or the OHC mechanism, there was nothing that would not stimulate the enthusiasm of young people.
However, even if you assign the best technology to each area of the design, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you will be able to create the best overall product, and in this case, that is what they were unable to do.
I apologize for jumping around a little, but consider, for example, the brakes. The initial pressure is very good. They create a sense of reliability that is not found in other cars. However, when it really matters, they are too strong at the front, locking up early, so although the brakes are effective, it takes a long time to stop. I think this is due in some subtle way to the geometry of the MacPherson-type front suspension. As another example, perhaps because the front suspension is slightly too soft, if you drive with one wheel stuck in gravel, the stability becomes extremely poor.
Of course, when it comes to the suspension, just one issue will be a major problem.
I have no intention of saying something nonsensical like they should change this car from FF to FR, but if Honda is committed to taking such forward-thinking measures that mass-market manufacturers like Toyota and Nissan would never be able to attempt, and I do want to applaud their stance of trying to go their own way, I would say that I strongly believe they should be able to make it a full four-seater front-midship and take full advantage of its layout.
If you ask me which current FF car is the most rational, I would answer: BLMC’s MG 1100.
Postscript: Story Photos
