While walking around London this April I noticed this rather dingy Honda sports car. I'd never seen one before, so I snapped this reference photo so that I could research it after returning to Seattle.
It turns out that it was a Honda Beat from around 1991-1996 (Wikipedia reference here). The entry states that it was the last car Soichiro Honda approved before he died in 1991. I'm a little skeptical because, given development timelines, it's possible that he approved other models that appeared a year or two later. Let me know in comments if my skepticism is wrong.
The entry also mentions that the design was by Pininfarina and sold to Honda.
Beats were of the small-displacement Japanese Kei class, having a 3-cylinder 656 cc motor producing 63 horsepower (according to Wikipedia) that was mounted between the seats and the rear axle line. The wheelbase was 90 inches (2,280 mm) and it weighed only 1,675 pounds (760kg). Its speed was governed to 84 mph (135 km/h).
Wikipedia doesn't mention if Beats were exported when new. United States allows used Beats to be imported, this having to do with the interval since they were built. Given my uncertainty regarding exportation, I have no idea as to when the car I saw in London arrived in the UK. Given its unkempt state, I would say it had been there for quite a while.
I rate its styling as very good for such a small package, though I'll also note that small sports cars are much easier to style than sedans of comparable size.
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