The Beat Resurrected: Meet the Honda S660

by TTAC Staff

Published: October 24th, 2013

the beat resurrected meet the honda s660

Honda’s rear-driven products built for two tend to be motorcycles, scooters and ATVs for the most part, but every now and again the company will unveil a roadster whose name begins with an S, and ends with the number of cubic centimeters the engine provides.

Such a car is set to return soon to the showroom floor, and will make its debut at the Tokyo Motor Show in November: The Honda S660.

The word on the street is the S660 will be powered by a 660 cc turbocharged engine placed just behind the driver and passenger, with all of its 67 ponies going to the rear wheels. Unlike some of Honda’s current and future offerings that are or will be powered by a combination of internal combustion and electric motivation, the new roadster is strictly gasoline-only.

The featherweight roadster, has its roots in the company’s EV-STER electric-only concept from the 2011 Tokyo Motor Show with regard to styling, penned by designer Ryo Sugiura. That said, don’t try to tell him his roadster is the second coming of the late Soichiro Honda’s last gift to the world, the Beat:

Some people might think this will be the remodeled version of the Beat. But it is not. This is totally brand new.

The S660 is one part of a potential three-pronged attack by Honda in the sports car segment. With it and the NSX forming the outer forks, the automaker plans to forge the center fork through the introduction a mid-engined Toyabaru hunter with a price point to match the GT86/BRZ/FRS when it makes its debut. In the meantime, the U.S. domestic market may not need to wait 25 years for the S660 to come over; Honda plans to sell the roadster in export markets with a 1000cc engine and minor changes with regards to safety regulations. S1000, anyone?

The S660 will make its production debut in Japan for the 2015 model year, in time for the automaker’s return to Formula One.

#Beat #Concepts #Debuts #Export #Honda #Japan #KeiCars #Mid-Engine #NSX #Roadsters #TokyoMotorShow #S660

TTAC Staff

More by TTAC Staff

Comments

Join the conversation

4 of 64 comments

Felis Concolor on Oct 25, 2013

Well, this'll make me reconsider the money I'm putting aside for a clean Nissan Figaro.

Like Reply
Reino on Oct 25, 2013

Once again Honda puts out a bizarre concept that no one will want to buy. When will they learn that all they need to do is put the Accord coupe body, engine, and 6-speed on a RWD platform and enthusiasts will eat it up?! Hyundai did it, but Honda can't?

Like Reply
- See 1 previous
- Demetri on Oct 25, 2013
  
  Mid-size coupes are a shrinking market in the US, and basically a non-market worldwide. Besides, I don't think there's much interest in that segment from enthusiasts. We already have the Genesis coupe and Challenger, and neither one is a darling of the enthusiast crowd.
  
  Like
- Jeffzekas on Nov 01, 2013
  
  @Demetri Folks said "there's no market for a modern sports car" right before the Miata appeared- proving that if you have the RIGHT product, folks will buy it!
  
  Like

Recent Comments

28-Cars-Later Mileage of 29/32/30 is pretty pitiful given the price point and powertrain sorcery to be a "hybrid". What exactly is this supposed to be?
MRF 95 T-Bird I own a 2018 Challenger GT awd in the same slate gray color. Paid $28k for it in late 2019 as a leftover on the lot. It’s probably worth $23k today which is roughly what this 2015 RT should be going for.
Mike978 There is trouble recruiting police because they know they won’t get support from local (Democratic) mayors if the arrests are on favored groups.
FreedMike I'm sure that someone in the U.S. commerce department during the 1950s said, "you know, that whole computer thing is gonna be big, and some country is going to cash in...might as well be us. How do we kick start this?" Thus began billions of taxpayer dollars being spent to develop computers, and then the Internet. And - voila! - now we have a world-leading computer industry that's generated untold trillions of dollars of value for the the good old US of A. Would "the market" have eventually developed it? Of course. The question is how much later it would have done so and how much lead time (and capital) we would have ceded to other countries. We can do the same for alternative energy, electric vehicles, and fusion power. That stuff is all coming, it's going to be huge, and someone's gonna cash in. If it's not us, you can damn well bet it'll be China or the EU (and don't count out India). If that's not what you want, then stop grumbling about the big bad gubmint spending money on all that stuff (and no doubt doing said grumbling on the computer and the Internet that were developed in the first place because the big bad gubmint spent money to develop them).
MRF 95 T-Bird The proportions of the 500/Taurus-Montego/Sable were a bit taller, akin to 1940’s-50’s cars in order to cater to crossover buyers as well as older drivers who tend to like to sit a tad higher.