The S660 is a very lightweight mid-enginedroadster. It shares a platform with the Honda N-One and uses the same 656 cc S07A engine with mechanical improvements. Its dimensions, due to kei car size restrictions, are nearly identical tothe 1990s Honda Beat. It is sold with either a 6-speed manual transmission or a CVT with paddle shifters, both options being offered on the two trims available. The S660 weighs approximately 830 kg with the manual transmission and 850 kg with the CVT, and is claimed to have a front/rear weight balance of 45/55. The naming convention of using the letter "S" followed by the engine displacement is a long-held Honda tradition going back to Honda's second production car, the Honda S500.
Performance
The S660 is powered by the same turbocharged 656 cc S07A 3-cylinder engine used in the Honda N-One with some mechanical improvements. In the S660 this engine is mid-mounted and produces at 6000 rpm and of torque at 2600 rpm with a redline of 7700 rpm for the manual transmission and 7000 rpm for the CVT. This gives the S660 a 0-60 mph time of upwards of 10 seconds, with Car and Driver magazine estimating it to be between 13.2 and 13.6 seconds, and a top speed of.
Development and launch
A prototype was shown at the November 2013Tokyo Motor Show. The prototype and proposed production announcement were widely covered in auto enthusiast news sites and blogs. Initial reactions to the concept were favorable. After the S660 entered the market, its first driving review was in June 2015 of a Japanese-market prototype driven by Top Gear in Tokyo. The author concluded that the car was "supremely maneuverable" but lacked power, something he hoped an export model with a larger motor would amend, and felt that such an export model might be a potential Mazda MX-5 competitor.
First photographs
The prototype S660 was photographed by car enthusiasts at a wintertime car event in early 2015 and published in the Japanese car enthusiast magazine Mag-X, and subsequently republished in the US car blog The Truth About Cars. The pictures included several exterior photos and one of the opened engine compartment.
Production
The development team of the S660 was led by Ryo Mukumoto, who beat out 400 other participants in Honda's in-house competition at the age of 22. Honda made him the youngest lead engineer in the company's history in spite of his lack of engineering experience, and he was given 5 years to develop the S660. Honda Motor Co. president Takanobu Ito stated that the S660 was planned for production in 2015. American Honda Motor Co. president Tetsuo Iwamura was quoted as saying "I would personally fight for it," to come to the United States if the US market asked for it.
