1 Million Yen Golden Oldie of the Day 20/08/08 - Kei Edition

Vital Statistics

Make & Model: Honda Vamos
Price: 650,000円
Year:1971年 (produced from 1971-1973)
On the odometer: 85,000km
Transmission: Manual
Extras: You must be joking. This is stripped to the bone utilitarian chic.

With an aesthetic that's somewhere between Fisher Price toddler's beach buggy and Lilliputian Army-issue missile launcher, this 1971 Honda Vamos is perhaps an unorthodox choice for anyone's dream JDM garage. Granted, as a proponent and former regular driver of kei cars, I'm aware that there are many more desirable specimens out there in the historical kei car parc, but surely none with as much visual impact and sheer eccentricity for your Yen.

The Vamos, not to be confused with the far more pedestrian 2nd generation Vamos van of the'90s and '00s, was introduced in November 1970 during something of a quirky car boom in Japan, with leisure oriented vehicles such as the Daihatsu Fellow Buggy, Isuzu Unicab, and Suzuki Jimny doing a roaring trade. Seemingly too much the funky oddball even for the outlandish Japan of the '70s, the Vamos, unlike its competitors, failed to make hay while the sun was shining and was unequivocally a sales flop. Downtrodden and outcast, the diminutive Honda bowed out at the end of its production run in 1973 with only 2,500 examples having been brought into existence, while the Jimny was to go on racking up the sales seemingly indefinitely.


While the car's lack of four-wheel-drive and stunted 10-inch wheels may have prevented the Vamos from attaining popularity in its youth, it makes a far more interesting proposition today. Indeed, the plucky little Honda has the perfect racing car inspired powertrain configuration, being mid-engined with drive channeled through the rear wheels. Forget for a moment that the aforementioned mid-mounted engine is in fact a 30ps air-cooled unit displacing a mere 360cc(the last air-cooled engine to feature in one of Honda's cars). The car's svelte 520kg curb weight should ensure a respectable power-to-weight ratio, while a distinct lack of doors should at least provide the impression of speed, even if not quantifiably present.

Any talk of performance is perhaps irrelevant however, for the Vamos' merits lie in its idiosyncrasies, and it is duly its singular nature that finds it with a place in the Automobilia Japonica fantasy garage.

See link below for a video of the diminutive Honda's hood in action.