1964 Honda S600 Hot Rod - Jay Leno's Garage

you well another episode of Jay Leno's Garage the car in front of me appears to be that maybe in 1964 a hundred six hundred you know my under six hundred here take a look this one looks a little rougher but this is California hot rodding at its best this is the kind of thing I think is really cool you know we always talk about the more money than brains Club this is the more brains than money Club this is taken a car that was essentially abandoned had no motor in it modifying it making it into a practical fun vehicle is actually faster stops better and handles better than the original and this is built by Matt Brown Matt come on in how you doing good how are you good to see ya I saw Matt over the rock story that's a place where motorcyclists kind of hang out and I it intrigued me because I I have one of these and they're pretty rare so what happened did you was it a Craigslist ad did you see it by the silencer it was posted on a forum and I've kind of always loved this car some guy that bought it to fix it up and didn't have time and then sold it and it didn't have an engine and I thought that's perfect timing I'm gonna put a 1 liter sport bike engine in it okay now what engine you have in it 2007 cbr1000rr okay now the original Angela cars with 600 CCS and a little jewel of a motor I mean twin overhead cam roller bearing crank io a said if it said Porsche instead of Honda it would have been worth a fortune and it had a 9,500 rpm redline back in 1964 but it was only six hundred CCS about half the size of this so obviously this is going to fly what transmission are you using it's the stock motorcycle transmission I've got a adapter going to a BMW two-piece driveshaft back to a BMW diff adapted to Miata half shaft all I've got all Miata outboard Miata brakes okay so obviously you've done away with the chain drive yeah it was it's cool design but it's just not really built to come into the Canyon carving stuff that I wanted to do with it do you still have those pieces I don't know I got rid of them got rid of them yeah you didn't throw them away I did there's no market for pre use parts but yes yes there is and you never throw anything away my wife you don't throw stuff away I had them for sale for for several months and no no no no no my friend Brian Baker would have bought them he was interested in it so basically it's just the stock body obviously tires away wider than stock a little bit yeah almost nothing stock except for the windshield and yeah and the body yeah and the tail light says so it's safe to say you're not a body in cosmetics man you know I my original plan was this was to kind of upgrade although you know the under the hood stuff and the frame and the suspension everything and then try to make the exterior look stock right but I got this far and I kind of like the way it looks I you know I liked the Kasota rat rod yeah you know when I was a kid hot rods were 32 Ford's or 57 Chevys or whatever and then of course as things move on this is before there were any Japanese cars really and now I love the fact that you take Japanese cars and you hotrod them I mean I think this would be a huge hit in Japan I think some of the hot rod guys over they would just go nuts to see this because you've got how many horsepower I mean 16 560 160 you got three times just about the stock horsepower and you have nitrous in it too got nitrous why not and it's a right-hand drive wonder where you ever know where the car came from obviously might have been Kenny cuz he was never important here no I don't I didn't I did a little research on it couldn't find anything I got as far back as it was in San Francisco like 30 years ago but yeah he knows can we open the hood yeah let's see what we got did you have the hood on it when I saw it I believe so yeah I had it up but yeah okay that's why boy there's a wiring job huh boy that couldn't get more Italian look in the net look at that yeah I got the Stock Motorcycle wiring harness on there so I didn't bother to shorten it or clean it up I just kind of crammed it yeah yes oh no that's okay and a little oversized radiator certainly bigger than was ever on the bike so it's got a cooler pretty nice huh yeah I this is kinda this is a lot of found parts and cheap parts so that I found a radiator that was really cheap that was about another third again taller than that and I just chopped it off and welded some capsule that's I like I like that hot rodding sort of idea you know you go to junkyard you get this little transmission and the gimr steering box off some of the early cars that's what they did back a might and this is basically the same thing just using aftermarket Japanese so American parts oh that's not a junkyard radiator no no when you say yeah yeah okay and this is a fuel tank right here fuel tank custom fuel tank water jet it out bent it up well did it Wow look at the suspension look at that yeah and what is this awful the rear shocks are from the rear shocks on a Yamaha r1 in the front or off of r6 this car is more motorcycle than car right right the gauge package what do we have there that's straight off the Honda motorcycle now when you want to date in this car two women go oh I have never taken a woman on a date in this car and why that's just car guy this this car is very polarizing people love it or they hate it and it pretty much falls along general hey - why would they hate it because it's not stock it's it's fun to drive around and I get skulls from the soccer moms and these nods of approval from the soccer does okay and I love this this is you water jetted this s1000 so that must make people think wow yes they did do an 800 they did and what happens when we open the trunk is even anything in here yeah other video yeah yeah Oh big nitrous bottle there you go and you can get to your end very easily yeah yeah I don't put anything in the trunk no I does not a very useful trunk so how do you like the motorcycle engine in it is it peaky or due to you you're always running 11 grand all the time yeah it's it doesn't you kind of have to keep it about 4 yeah yeah and it doesn't really have anything below about 75 but that's the same with the stock car I mean the stock car had nothing below yeah for yeah it just and you know he's being so used to American engines when you're on the freeway and you get 7500 hit like 65 miles an hour the engine screaming but that's what that's what it wants to do that's where it lives sure here you know but in my mind you're saying oh I got to get the roads down but then you're lugging it so here you just have to get used to it this is really California hot riding that's what I love it's all essentially quote junkyard parts where the bike come from I just got the engine on eBay some wrecked bike okay so you look specifically for this motor why I wanted a Honda right and I almost did the 600 RR to keep it a 600 but I just really wanted the extra power and I got this year because the the six and o7s or a little less power than the later ones and the later ones are a lot more expensive because people put them in mini sprints and stuff like that so I got this whole thing wiring harness and everything for a thousand bucks and you can get him four thousand bucks all day long so so how much you think you have in this car under ten thousand I wonder ten for sure yeah that's great probably closer to five I mean I fabricated everything like yeah everything that could be fabricated I fabricated everything that could be bought I got you know pretty cheap on Craigslist or Ebay or something soon I like the roll bar I just care about my head that's a passion I've actually got and I made a roll bar for the passenger side but I didn't like the way it looks I'd take it off cool I think it's time to take a rack we take it out absolutely let's do it how many streetcars rev - 12 grand when he gets on the ride the motorcycle I like to cutaway hood yeah I couldn't get a big all just got a hole in it the Japanese Mehra's out on the I love the game on a little wagon car No 775 six high six low I'm here mom why spend six wait in there so compliant I mean Gordon Mary really did his homework I would hope yeah Gordon Murray he knows his stuff that was his first road car I think it's the only one in the US my mom goes forever be afraid to use the brain in the end the Mesmer it's really nice to drive makes all the right noises are gone a dangerous gun what's your regular car right now I used to have a Dodge Viper that I just many Cobras with motorcycle motor saw your video with the guys right and the bar that's when it yeah now temperamental at all how many miles on this motor oh I don't know I bought the dash at like 38 6,000 how much fun can you have for less than $10,000 that's pretty amazing let's take it up and we'll weigh em knit the nitrous yet have we really haven't won let's hit the nitrous on the free or ramp and see what she does I love this thing the screams makes the best noise yeah that's my favorite part about this car is the noise yeah well that's great that's California hot rodding at its best you know it's really fun and and and really just a little skill and engineering and front of 10 grand you've got this is great sports it's a great sports car to drive it's as much fun as anything I've driven a long time revs to 12,000 rpm Matt really terrific terrific job it's really fun to see I mean it's fun to do the expensive stuff but the creative stuff sometimes money ruins creativity and this is a classic example of that just really creative thinking and just interesting using me out of parts and other parts and plus it's the modern interpretation of the old California hot rodding you know there aren't any 32 Ford's around anymore but there's plenty of old junky Japanese cars I mean you could do this with a sprite or an mg or co-stars put motorcycle engines appreciably cheap to get like you said we built the whole car from the 10 grand man thank you very much very modest fun guys next week

Channel: Jay Leno's Garage

Views: 1,315,387

Rating: 4.9539952 out of 5

Keywords: Jay Leno, Jay Leno's Garage, car reviews, compares cars, classic cars, vintage cars, sports cars, super cars, cars, car gear, McLaren P1, Porsche 918 Spyder, Camaro Z28, jay lenos garage, nbc jay leno, 1964 s600 hot rod, jay leno 1964 honda 600, matt brown jay leno, matt brown 1964 honda s600 hot rod, jay leno hot rod

Id: UsbfzmPCYX4

Length: 16min 37sec (997 seconds)

Published: Sun May 24 2015

Reddit Comments

[u/hopenoonefindsthis]

Yeah forget about MX5. I want one of these.

It sounds bloody amazing and looks like it's a heaps of fun of drive. I would love to take it around a track and do a proper track day in it.

[u/Bamres]

I love everything about this car. The rat rod thing is something i like the idea of but probably wouldn't want myself

[u/Pianowned]

I have never ever in my life wanted a car so badly as much as this one.

I've also never seen Jay Leno talk so little about a car while driving, and that says so much more about how much he liked this car.

[u/deprivedchild]

Holy shiiiit that looks and sounds amazing. I didn't know you could pick up those chassis for cheap--as in, I thought they'd be super expensive.

[u/8ballslackz]

When Jay power shifted at 7:55 and hit the limiter, I audibly yelped. I'm in love with the way this car sounds.

[u/sgttaco806]

Is the NOS tank a rear end collision danger? I don't know enough about those tanks to know.

[u/ir0nli0nzi0n]

Sick car. Even though they are reasonably priced, it's insanely hard to find one of these. The Datsun Fairlady is a good alternative though.

[u/[deleted]]

It would be amazing if they made a kit car for one of these.

[u/Schultzz_]

Jay brought up the rocket

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