Honda S800 (1966)
Publication: Auto Sport
Format: Auto Sport Road Test
Date: May 1966
Author: Nobuo Koga, Hiroshi Hoshijima
30-Hour Nonstop Run
It is said that only with the evolution from the S600 to the S800 has the Honda Sports matured into a true gran turismo. We put that character to the test over 1,300km of hard driving, while also conducting acceleration tests and other measurements.
A Bad Feeling
It was in early March that we set out to test the Honda S800. A cold wave had just swept in, and we heard that snow had piled up on the Hakone Shindo road, forcing it to close to traffic the night before. Whenever part of the Tokaido or one of the mountain passes is closed, all the vehicles that have been held up—especially the big trucks—set off together the following morning. The highways then invariably become hopelessly backed up. Thinking about all this before we left, I somehow had a bad feeling.
The S800 supplied by Honda, however, was tied to a fixed schedule, and there was no way to change the date, so in the end we decided to leave Tokyo around midnight, when the roads would be relatively empty. Our original plan was to head west from Tokyo, turn around at the 1,000km point, and cover the full 2,000km without stopping. Assuming an average cruising speed of 45-50km/h, this would take between 40 and 44 hours. We calculated that if we left at night, we could be back in Tokyo two days later.
We actually started at 11:00pm on the 12th, but discovered that the tachograph and Halda Speedpilot we had fitted were not working properly, and quickly had to turn back. After fixing them up, we set off again—an embarrassing false start for us. By then it was already after midnight, and the effects of our inadequate preparation continued to plague us to the very end, preventing us from logging satisfactory records—something we regretted greatly. We started again at 12:55am on the 13th, but the tachograph stubbornly refused to operate until 7:00 that morning.
Crawling Along
To make matters worse, my bad feeling turned out to be correct.
Not long after passing Numazu, around Senbon Matsubara, we found ourselves crawling forward inch by inch. The traffic between Fuji and Shimizu and around the Utsunoya Pass was equally bad, and just as we were finally able to breathe a sigh of relief and resume a normal pace, two trucks collided on the far side of the Oi River, one of them overturning and completely blocking the road. We were forced to make a long detour through Shimada and cross the bridge farther upstream. We ran into still more traffic in Hamamatsu, and by the time we reached the drive-in at Nishi-Hamana, we were beginning to feel tired. The distance from Tokyo to Nishi-Hamana, including our driving within Tokyo, was less than 300km. We had expected to cover it comfortably in six hours. Our original plan was to arrive at 5:00am; in reality, it was 8:30am. We were already three and a half hours behind schedule.
Over breakfast there, we reconsidered our plans. In the end, we abandoned the 2,000km nonstop run and decided instead to take the Meishin Expressway, do some hill-climbing around the far side of Mt. Rokko, then continue via the Hanna Highway and the newly opened Meihan Highway to Kameyama. From there we would stop at Suzuka Circuit before heading straight back to Tokyo. The revised route would cover about 1,200km in all.
Even after that, we repeatedly encountered traffic around Toyohashi and before Okazaki. It was noon by the time we entered Nagoya, and a little before 1:00pm when we reached the Komaki interchange.
We stopped briefly at the rest area at Yoro to check the car, then set off to cover the Meishin Expressway in one stretch. Near Yokaichi, however, the left front tire suffered a puncture. We quickly replaced it with the spare wheel, but at the Otsu interchange we pulled into a service garage to have the flat tire repaired. We found that a nail had left the tube perforated with a row of holes like sewing-machine stitches, making it difficult to repair, so we decided to replace the tube instead. But the garage had neither a 6.15-13 tube nor even a 6.00-13, so in the end we had to drive into Otsu in search of a replacement. That cost us another full hour.
This road test really was plagued by bad luck.
High-Speed Driving
From the Nishinomiya interchange we joined National Route 2, then turned off at Ashiya toward the Royu Road. Of all the roads we drove during our test of the Honda S800, I think the network of “driveways” around Mt. Rokko, beginning with the Royu Road, was the setting best suited to this car.
Our route took us along the Royu Road to Arima Onsen, then alongside the Kobe Electric Railway’s Shinyu Line to the foot of the climb up the northern side of Mt. Rokko. From there we entered the Ura-Rokko Driveway, passing below Kinenhidai and the Rokko-san Hotel, then continued onto the Nishi-Rokko Driveway. Near the Forest Botanical Garden we took the Oku-Futatabi Driveway and then the Futatabi-san Driveway, which brought us out near Motomachi in central Kobe. There were too many toll gates to allow an uninterrupted run, but from 4:00pm until a little after 5:00pm, just when the pleasure-driving crowd had begun to thin out, we were able to drive to our hearts’ content. Everywhere around Mt. Rokko there is one sharp, tire-squealing curve after another, making it an ideal place to put one’s driving technique to work. In summer, however, I am told that the volume of traffic, together with cyclists and hikers, makes it impossible to drive as freely as one would like.
Considering how difficult it is to find a suitable hill-climb course around Tokyo, drivers in this area are fortunate indeed. On the other hand, almost all these driveways charge tolls, so spending half a day driving around can become fairly expensive. From around Futatabi-san Park, the view down over the port of Kobe, caught in the setting sun, was magnificent.
1,300km on the Road
Night fell while we were driving from Kobe to Osaka. From Taisho Bridge, near the southern end of Osaka, we continued through Uehommachi 6-chome, Kawachi, and Hiraoka before joining the Hanna Road, then took the Meihan Road from Tenri through to Kameyama. The Meihan Road opened this year and is currently toll-free; the road itself is excellent, and the quality of the pavement is first-rate.
After stopping briefly at Suzuka Circuit, we made another short stop at Hamamatsu to refuel, finally arriving back in Tokyo at 6:20am on the 14th. From our restart at Akasaka in Tokyo, 29 hours 25 minutes had elapsed. We had covered a total of 1,298.3km, for an overall average speed of 44km/h. The total time spent stopped for refueling, servicing, repairs, meals, and so forth was 2 hours 20 minutes.
We consumed 120.2 liters of high-octane gasoline, for an overall fuel consumption of 10.7km/l over the entire run.
In addition, we added half a liter of oil on three occasions, for a total of 1.5 liters. The only troubles were with the tachograph and Speedpilot—neither of which had anything to do with the Honda S800 itself—and the puncture on the Meishin. There was not even any need to add coolant.
Less Weight per Horsepower
Now we come to the road impressions themselves. Auto Sport has already featured a test-run report on the Honda S800 in its April issue, in which the preparation of the car, its mechanical details, the differences from the S600, and so forth were discussed so thoroughly that there is very little to add here. To describe the Honda S800 very simply, then, it might be summed up as the S600 with its body left almost unchanged, fitted with a larger-capacity 800cc engine and 6.15-13 low-section tires.
Externally, the main changes are a new radiator grille, with a black-painted mesh set off by cross-shaped chrome moldings; a bulge in the engine hood around the air-cleaner area; and a completely redesigned rear grille incorporating combination lamps. The bumpers, too, project farther outward than those of the S600 and have been made more substantial. Yellow has also been added to the existing range of body colors.
Mention yellow and one immediately pictures the unpleasant color of a taxi, but the actual car looks remarkably bright and cheerful. It has an appealing character of its own, quite different from the yellow seen on Porsches.
The stronger-looking cross motif at the front now incorporates horizontally elongated turn-signal lamps, while the round tail lamps have likewise been replaced by somewhat larger horizontal ones. The way the white reversing lamp has been neatly incorporated within each of these through a clever arrangement is a particularly good idea.
Apart from the engine, the chassis can be considered virtually identical to that of the S600. Overall length, width, and height are 3335 × 1400 × 1200mm (1195mm for the Coupe). The 35mm increase in overall length compared with the S600 is due to the bumper changes mentioned above. Weight is also slightly heavier, at 720kg (735kg for the Coupe). Even so, the weight per horsepower is much lighter than in the S600.
A More Powerful Engine
The engine is, of course, an enlarged version of the S600 unit. Both bore and stroke have been increased by about 5mm, from 54.5 × 65mm to 60 × 70mm. Total displacement is now 791cc. Maximum output has increased from 57ps/8500rpm to 70ps/8000rpm, while maximum torque has risen from 5.2kgm/5500rpm to 6.7kgm/6000rpm. This brings the weight per horsepower down from 12.6kg/ps to 10.3kg/ps.
From the outside, the cylinder block appears to be dimensionally identical to that of the S600. The S600 engine itself has undergone considerable improvement since its introduction. For example, the cylinder liners, originally separate individual pieces, were later paired into single units to increase rigidity, and the S800 should, of course, represent the most highly developed version. The compression ratio is 9.2. The four Keihin Seiki variable-venturi carburetors have also been increased from 26mm to 32mm in bore diameter.
With the increase in power and torque, the transmission ratios are now 3.20 / 1.98 / 1.29 / 0.91, compared with 3.89 / 2.19 / 1.43 / 1.09 for the S600. The overall reduction ratio has also been lowered from 5.9 to 5.8. As the figures indicate, the ratios are now slightly closer from one gear to the next. As on the S600, a 5-speed transmission is available as an option.
The propeller shaft also appears to have been made slightly thicker.
Smooth Acceleration
What struck me on driving the car was that the engine now has much more in reserve. I once wrote that the S600 seemed to have “two engines,” but in the S800 there is no unevenness in character from low to high speeds; the revs rise smoothly, demonstrating that more than 6.0kgm of torque is available from 2500-8000rpm. Although the torque peak occurs 500rpm higher, maximum output is, conversely, developed 500rpm lower. In fact, from anywhere above 2500rpm, acceleration is excellent. We did not reach its maximum speed of 160km/h, but in top gear it would run quite easily to 7700-7800rpm. The car we tested was the convertible, but with the Coupe, leaving acceleration aside because of its greater weight, its lower aerodynamic drag should give it an advantage in maximum speed.
We conducted the 0-400m acceleration test at Honda’s test course on the Arakawa in Saitama Prefecture, but were unable to match the catalog figure; our best time was 17.49 seconds. In any case, asking a brand-new car to give its best in a 0-400m run is rather unreasonable. The best times are generally recorded only after the drivetrain is properly run in.
The gearbox is now fully synchronized, and the ability to select first gear at any speed is certainly welcome.
The Pleasures of Grand Touring
Lap times at Suzuka Circuit in the S600 have improved considerably over the past year, and recently many drivers have been able to record times of under 3 minutes 10 seconds even with a stock car, using only a stiffer suspension. The question, then, is what the S800 might do, and it seems likely that it could cut another seven to ten seconds from those times.
With the S800, breaking the three-minute mark with nothing more than a stiffer suspension should not be an exceptionally difficult feat.
There are several reasons for this: the increase in power and torque means greater speed coming out of the corners; speeds are higher along the straight from Spoon Curve to the 150R, and along the straight from the final corner to the first; and the wider tires provide greater stability in cornering. All of these should make a substantial difference.
Even in the mountains around Rokko, there were two or three occasions when I found myself wondering how the S600 would have managed. The greater tire contact area, together with the increased driving force available during cornering, seems to have made sporting driving in the S800 not only more enjoyable, but safer as well.
At the same time, the greater reserve of the engine means that it generally operates at lower speeds. Besides improving durability, this also reduces vibration and noise and benefits ride comfort, making the car easier to use as a business car.
Sitting in the driver’s seat, one notices that the previously polished instrument panel has been changed to a matte-black finish. At first glance it may seem less striking, but after a long drive one realizes how much small improvements such as this can help reduce driver fatigue.
It has been a little over three years since the Honda Sports first went on sale, and my honest impression after this test was how much the car has matured in that time. In the end, the excellence of the Honda S800—quite the opposite of the bad feeling I had before setting off—seems to have saved this grand tour.