August 18, 2008

Before the Civic.

Everybody knows what a Honda Civic is. Chances are you've driven one or you know somebody who has one. They seem to be appreciated by two distinctly different crowds: they're the econo-mobiles of gas savvy consumers and they're the dustbin-exhaust fitted charriots of boyracers across the world. But what came before the Civic?

Go back to 1968, a lot of Americans didn't know what a Honda was because they weren't imported here. Only in 1969 did Honda import its first car, the N600. A 600cc two cylinder engine lodged in the front powered this two door car that was small enough to compete against the Fiat 500 and the original Mini. Shame they tried to market it in the late 1960s on a market dominated by land yatches with huge V8 engines and running on cheap gas. The N600 was a flop and production was stopped in 1972, replaced by the Civic. These are seldom seen today but they've got a following amongst the early Honda crowd.
This one is sitting in Centerville, Utah, and appears to be complete, save for the glass.






2 comments:

lord_farkwad said...

Hello, I live in Utah. ...and my Honda 600 was stolen about 15~18 years ago. It looks exactly like that... Where did you find it in centerville? I'm not looking to prosecute anyone, rather it would be nice to fix up again... I still have spare parts for it.

Ronan Glon said...

John,

Send me an email at Alfa.105 -at- hotmail.com, I'll give you more details about it.

Ronan Glon.