The Smoking Tire covers plenty of cars—four per week with one video being posted Monday-Thursday. Farah drives exotics and tuners alike, and to be honest, there isn’t a whole lot that he hasn’t done a review of. But out of all these cars including McLarens, Lamborghinis, and Ferraris, he seems to like this quirky Japanese Kei car more than anything else. This Honda N600 has been rethought from its bones to its skin and is now powered by a rev-happy motorcycle engine with a sequential gearbox and flappy paddles—enough to turn any 1,400 pound car into a riot.
Back to that engine: it has a 12,000 RPM redline and a nearly endless powerband. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a motorcycle powerplant in a car, but most of the others are turbo Hyabusa applications that are peaky and difficult to predict; this one is different. It produces 115 horsepower and screams “like an F1 car” with Farah belting out “I feel like Senna at Monaco!” Who would’ve thought anyone would say that driving a Honda N600?
On top of its theatrical powerplant, it’s exceptionally put together with fit and finish to boot. Trick bits like the starting sequence and exhaust dumps make the experience even more entertaining. It’s obvious that this car wasn’t just put together in a driveway—instead, some motor maniac named Dean Williams built it from the start. According to the owner, Williams is in the process of building a 400 horsepower Volvo P1800, which should be equally bonkers.
Watch Farah hoot and holler throughout, and maybe consider building one of these yourself … I know I am.
