Racing a gold-colored S600 in the Beginner Series World Compact Car Cup at London, I can't say I share the glowing words of drivers past, exactly. This one (as fore-mentioned) feels flimsy at a track like this. Braking is effective, but one must be careful not to place too much steering input while slowing, or a rear-slide can easily happen in this lightweight. Bumps and grids can also easily disturb the S-car's handling orbits, causing a need for spontaneous countersteers, and occasionally delicate throttle taps in a car that would normally be able to handle the mouse-like torque its 600 ccs puts out. Although it's risky putting a limited-slip in a vehicle like this, I gotta admit it's a lot clumsier of a drive than I thought it would be, meaning that LSD might not be a bad idea.

 

The S also leans heavily while cornering, really heavily. Body-sway type oversteer therefore does become a problem at times, sometimes even after braking is over. I haven't been able to find any specs for the S600's ground clearance, but the 800 floats 6.3 inches (160 mm) above the ground, and that's a lot for such a small car. We can see this during replays. Despite their lowish body heights, these often feel like they're leaning a bit too much.

 

This comes down to suspension settings, though. We've got torsion bars rated at 2.0 kg/mm up front, and those rear coil-over shocks are even weaker at 1.8 in the S600; the S800 has 2.1 and 1.9. We've seen such numbers in cars which are much heavier, of course, and I didn't think these sort of numbers would be bad in such light cars. But the bottom line: These suspensions need to be firmed up and maybe lowered with a sports kit, pronto.

 

On the other hand, there are some good things to mention, at least at a slow track like London or Cape Ring. Almost zero understeer, for starters. And though the S600 is shod with tires just 132 millimeters in width, it is a pretty grippy car mid-turn, assuming no bumps upset it, and no brakes have been locked. In comparison, a modern S2000's got tires which are 205 mm in width up front, and 225 in the rear.

 

I drove an S800 in the Clubman Cup, desperate to find a weak automobile to compete here, but also one which is not too weak. The S600 cannot do this series of races, for instance. Anyways, now we get to see what happens when we push an S-car to its limits on medium-grade sport tires instead of radials.

 

At first, everything feels great in this ancient 2-seater sports car, and we might get the impression that we're about to drive a handling demon. It turns-in when we want it to, it feels nice and grippy mid-turn, and it exits with a lack of drama. At first. ... But it's the little things that we might start to notice which will cause one to sit up a little straighter and take notice. The mini-slides, the mini-wiggles, the mini-skews and jogs.... 

 

Understeer now becomes a bit of a problem, once we're pushing this car during the first Clubman race at Tsukuba, up against others which possess a lot more horsepower. It's those narrow tires again! I tried using a height-adjustable sport suspension to get the S800 behaving just as I'd like, yet it was understeer which now was on the list, not so much oversteer. We're not talkin' about the sort of understeer which causes trains to de-rail, but when really pushing the 800 at Tsukuba, I found I had slightly more problems with pushing (using medium sport tires) than I had with body-sway or any other types of oversteer.

 

There was also a rather unpredictable amount of grabbing on-entry, which causes a light car like this one to take a sudden arc into Tsukuba's hairpins that winds up being too tight. Trying to correct this is difficult: in a flash, the car's going too wide if I let out that steering a little too much, its super-light front-end obeying my commands as it's supposed to. Again, a limited-slip was not actually needed during that first race at Tsukuba, (not for traction, anyways) but it might help keep this car from being too flexible.

 

Also, the variety of small, unseen bumps during the final long right curve at this particular track caused the Honda to lose some very small amounts of grip while cornering extra-hard, subtly changing its cornering line just enough to cause concern on occasoin. There was one time I braked a bit late into this turn, causing the rear to step out a bit. A little bit of body-sway can be caused by braking too late, which can become something to watch for, but otherwise this super-light automobile managed to swap places with a lot of others which are bigger and heavier, in and out of tighter areas. Assuming there was a way to drive through traffic, the S could take it. I managed to win this first race by the way, a Toyota Celica SS-II challenged the '66 Honda during the final lap during horsepower (straighter) sections, but as the '66 zipped in and out of those three hairpins and Turn 3 (the right-hand swerve) that Celica didn't have a chance.

 

At Route 246, it was now oversteer on the menu, along with traction and grip losses caused by 246's enormous rumble strips. This track's got those extra-wide paved areas to safely enter, so understeer was not so much of a problem, although it was occasionally there. I anticipated I might have some problems with the rear at this track, and installed a limited-slip beforehand, but it was set rather weak, which means the poor S800 occasionally suffered a bit of pendulum-like behavior as it transitioned from mid-turn to exit, and throttle was re-introduced. Very exciting stuff!  But also very dangerous and occasionally frustrating, especially if these little wiggles turned smoky.

 

The Honda made 2nd place, barely losing to that same Celica at this track. Oddly, the '07 Mazda Miata which started just behind the Honda did not challenge for the lead at all. Strange. It never even made it to the front lines, despite driving rather flawlessly. 

 

 By now, I had lost some confidence in my S800's handling. It's a lot of work driving this car, especially at a track featuring high-speed dares!  During Tokyo's long walled curves, the poor Honda rocked on its suspension port to starboard, starboard to port, just like a rowboat on a wavy pond. But 2nd place ain't bad for a 47 year-old up against a group of much newer cars. And let's not forget: the final track is up ahead, and it's got some twisty handling areas.

 

I left the limited-slip device in place for Cape Ring Periphery, but it wasn't really needed. Other than a bit of sliding here and there, there was nothing to fear as the weakling Honda, now possessing just 79 horses, wound up with a 4 second lead by the end of the race. If anything, the LSD unit actually caused a bit of pushing during one particular area of the track (the ring part). Nothing horrible, but if this race were actually challenging, this would be something to watch for and maybe address.       

 

I doubt the GT4 versions of this lineage could tell a tale anything close to those in GT5; chances are the career in GT4 for an S-car might be even more limited. Then again, there are the 1,000 Miles races, where we can really get to know these rarities well. In any case, the fact that this car is so narrow, light, and lithe helps a lot, as often we can squeeze by some other idiot, jam that throttle and let them say 'bye bye' as we blast 'em with 60 to 132 horsepower, at our command!