Powered by a diminutive, 660 cc engine mounted just behind the car’s two sporty bucket seats, the old Honda Beat was, like the iconic NSX, a perfectly sporting interpretation of Soichiro Honda‘s vision for his company. Since his death, Honda has veered away from its roots as a builder of small, efficient vehicles that had “enough” power and into the maker of massively powerful minivans and SUVs and, yeah, a Civic or Fit that, now and again, seem true to Honda’s vision. Starting next year, though, Honda’s vision may rise again- in the form of an all-new-for-2015 Honda Beat S660 roadster.
That, in case you were wondering, is awesome news!
The new-age Honda Beat, which may or may not carry the name along with its “S660″ alphanumeric, is set to be built at the Yokkaichi factory, a facility that currently builds small “kei-cars” on contract for Honda. If that’s accurate, the reintroduction of the Beat would mean more jobs- and more job security!- for the city of Yokkaichi, and a real reason to celebrate Honda’s product planners.
Also, since I’ve begged and pleaded with Honda to build a production version of the EVSter (the original concept that led to the S660, which is leading to a reborn Honda Beat) ever since I saw it in Chicago back in 2012, I am mentally prepared to take all the credit should an electric version of the tiny runabout ever hit US shores. I’ll need that credit, too, if I’m going to get a good lease payment on the first one to hit the ‘States! Until that happens (which, sadly, may be never), we’ll have to settle for some auto show pictures of the S660 concept. Autoblog has a great gallery of those, and I’ve put some of my favorites, below. Enjoy!
2015 Honda Beat S660
2012 Honda EVSter Electric Concept
Source | More Photos: Autoblog.
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