1970/71 Honda Z600 | Jay Leno's Garage

[Music] [Music] she moves along pretty good it does doesn't it I mean like any classic sometimes they're temperamental sometimes yeah right [Music] I like driving this thing it's a lot of fun right it's a little go-kart one episode of Jay Leno's Garage the car featuring today 1970-71 Honda z600 Coupe these are great little cars but the thing that really attracted me to this I'm a sucker for father-son projects you know my dad used to help me work on cars I helped him work on cars whatever you want to call it and we heard about these two this this is an original car has been repainted or anything it's just been maintained and restored although it did sit for three years for a while until they found it let's bring in the Harrison and buck Woodruff come on in you guys this is Harrison the sun Buck the dad I love father and son projects yeah I don't know if people do that much anymore but when I was a kid everybody worked on with their dad on a motorcycle or a snowmobile or something so and you guys have brought this thing back not from the dead but it was it was on its way downhill wasn't it it was disheveled to say the least disheveled yes that's what a Salesman would say needs recommissioning a little bit now Buck you were the youngest Honda dealer in the state of Georgia isn't that correct when you were a young man yes I was 25 years old yes well that's that's pretty good how did that how do you cop that one that's all right well I got I was very lucky I was working with a gentleman that had another franchise in Honda and I chose to stick with Honda and I was awarded a franchise when they were looking for American dealers young and American well you know I love this era when shashiro Honda am I saying his name correctly the founder because he was a real engineer and he loved engineering uh later when he died like any company things kind of go by committee but he had an iron fist about how things should be done I remember I guess it was it the cvcc engine that was the big breakthrough because I remember all the American auto manufacturers throwing money at watch we can't meet these emissions and it's impossible and lobbyists and and Mr Honda committed said what what are you trying to get what are the rules okay went back to Japan came back with that engine and it was revolutionary yes that was that was power it made emissions and people went well how'd you do that and and this is a classic example of that I just like it because it's so Japanese you know Hondas and Edmond Toyota they're all World cars now but this really reflects the Japanese sort of ethos of of engineering and high revving and I've got a little 64 over there at my 600 and the red line is 9 500 RPM in 1964 I mean it's crazy this thing is just screaming and you think I'm hurting it but no that's what it loves and it's pretty much is that the same engine as mine basically it's derived off the Honda motorcycle engine right if that's the uh I believe it's a 598 CC well it's interesting now you say I used to hear it was derived from and then when I spoke to Japanese people said no it was using the technology but it was built as a it was never a motorcycle engine adapted to a car it makes sense it was just using the high revving uh you know multi-valve that type of thing technology to achieve power instead of low end torque like like America so this is what you sold new pretty much as a Young Man correct uh this came before me right but I mean not a couple of years yes but what do you what would you give on a trade-in of these back in the 70s 75 100 a little bit more than that but not much yeah and while that's what I mean they were just sort of almost disposable cars for people at the time weren't they well um America didn't know right what this product was and this was the in between the transition of motorcycles to a car and then before cvcc and then the bigger car which is the Accord all followed this and plus you had a lot of ill feeling because of the war I mean there was a lot of things going against it when it came in so they really had to earn the medal by engineering and technology and it wasn't anything like an American car who in America make a car with 13 inch wheels I mean it just seemed almost funny especially down in Georgia they see Guy what kind of color is that boy what do you got I was thinking remember the dog Sheriff do you remember that sheriff sure Dodge commercial it was kind of racing engine in there boy I I was this a tough sell was it tough to sell these in Georgia when you started yes it was because this was introduced in the middle of the muscle car right uh era which is still going on but um Mr Honda was very technical and very much a Visionary in his time the Precision was the focus right and the efficiency was the focus and America caught on and and uh and this is what you grew up with probably as a kid correct not quite not quite we were driving around in a little bit bigger vehicles with a lot less MPG but right yeah yeah okay so what brought you around back to these again so kind of a a conversation he and I had a few years ago it was he wanted to involve me in in the dealerships and Honda and Acura and with him having you know started selling these when he was 25 and I'm 23 now who I have a year and a half left to school right he thought it would be a pretty cool lineage and Heritage thing to go find the first thing that he sold us to if we need to completely redo it or find a living Relic such as this right put it in the showroom and just have like a family lineage between us what did you find you find this in Georgia I found in Pasadena oh Pasadena right here I didn't see it in Pasadena I would have bought it from a yeah that's okay if you weren't looking on Facebook Marketplace you might have missed it let's open the hood and show them absolutely show them what we got here other side oh it's the other side it is okay you guys open it up well I thought this is originally right hand drive that's correct converted to the American Market foreign I think there's a bird stuck under the hood I know it's talking mounted transverse how many cylinder two two oh this is two okay no mine is four yeah okay and it's 600 cc's uh just under it just sounds like 598 marketing reasons yeah so not the big block no well the 800 Coupe came later correct correct see my mine is a four-cylinder uh roller bearing crank okay it's pretty sophisticated I mean if it said Porsche on it it'd be a half a million dollars absolutely with the roller bearing crank and 9 500 RPM Redline it was a sophisticated well even the Porsche twin cams in the 50s went to maybe 7 300 74. they didn't go to 9 400 like mine so that's pretty interesting I wonder why they went to Tucson rather than four I guess for space and I guess a little more torque more bottom end with uh probably okay well with this car it was the transition from motorcycle engine into a bigger car right and two cylinders who had the efficiency of four right I presume and what do you think about close to 45 pretty good oh they got 60 miles to 15 miles per gallon yeah I mean we can't we can't do that now no no that's pretty amazing yeah this is very nice if I might add this this is just how we bought it it's not been changed or altered right right and that's very important all the numbers match all the everything's correct right you got the original painting everything you have the original wiper bag oh okay the vinyl is still soft the original owner plates a car salesman always a car yeah Mr Leno's got the original wiper bag right here you got this boy I'm getting fast talked into buying this thing right now it's not for sale oh now it's not now see you got to ask him yeah there you go no very nice I I just like how come it is so different than opening the hood of anything American especially in 1970 I mean it's just it doesn't bear any relationship to it and what was the red line on this oh just did it come with attack in the coop it does it does okay it's about 75 75 or 7200 something like that but it'll stay there all day yes top speed Resort maybe 90 miles an hour or something like it took a long time to get there but yeah yeah as long as you're going downhill yeah clutch into very cool well let's walk around with you and this will this shut yep right here here oh there we go [Music] and and you even got the original tool kit and we do spare tire huh absolutely so let me just grab the keys all right hey got more trunk room than my P1 McLaren oh there's your spare tire oh you got is that the original tool kit it is and what did you get for tools let me give you they gave you a really wacky looking oh this is part of the Jack oh I see icing I see hang on yeah multi-tool oh I see it yeah it's a okay so you got all of every kind of and what does this do there you go yep there you go you're not going to find this anywhere no there you go is that the original tire that came with it it is okay that's funny we haven't pulled it out to see if it's um we haven't pulled it out to see if it's to see if it's dry rotted yet we don't really want to know no you don't want to know the thing about these things is you find them and you think they're going to need everything and you just drain the fluid and put fresh fluid and they're fine you know I found a bunch of 305 Hondas I've I've got a 150 dream you know a little it just sat outside it's very funny yeah yeah cool well that's very neat how they have the spare tire and everything get under there right so you got leaf springs and it's that drums all the way around correct yep correct not many options there's no air conditioning certainly back in the damn these no just a blower and it's a four-speed correct it is okay of course did they make an automatic they didn't make it in the Z yeah no not in the Z yeah yeah okay now I noticed the seats have some piping but you added that right yes we um we redid the seats on it I mean we tried to find the original fabric right we just couldn't find any and they were just like I said earlier disheveled yeah yeah but there are probably people now starting to you know all this stuff is becoming collectible again and absolutely people coming up with the original Fabrics you know for the longest time I couldn't find that correct German leather from my 6.3 Mercedes so all modern leather is sealed it's not really leather right it's something else you know you can't put hide food in it make it smell and get that rich you know but this guy had the leather and then so you could you could probably find that absolutely certainly in Japan because in Japan now these are it's funny when this car was built there was no Japanese car heritage cars were really just 15 to 20 years old populations now they have a rich Heritage you know the Z car certainly in the early Honda convertible yeah very nice it's you know it looks so funny today even that the new smart car is bigger than this oh absolutely a fiat's bigger than this right I know it's funny it's funny but but it's to scale it is the scale if we stepped away it would look somewhat normal yeah yeah well what is the horsepower rating on this motor back then you remember I just know the CC's okay but I'm not 600cc so it's probably I think it's 65 horsepower it is 65 which is yeah I've got a 37 Fiat Topolino that's a flathead okay that's 600 that's 590 cc's but it's only 13 and a half horsepower and that extra half just kind of gets you over the hill yep that one bump but still great fun to drive aren't they oh a blast yeah it sounds good it's fun to drive manually it's almost like a Japanese version of a Mini Cooper yes yeah yeah I mean that's what's fun when these cars came out it wasn't necessarily an economy thing although so it was for a lot of people but for like rock stars politicians they just liked because it was like a Mini Cooper it was a cool thing to have yes I remember the Beatles had Mini Coopers and Twiggy and you know all those kind of people who could afford obviously a Rolls-Royce or something but there was a certain cachet to driving these around did you have any problems what was your biggest problem did it run fairly quickly and have been sitting it been sitting for three years you said yeah so the previous owner had been sitting for three years and he went to the gentleman Mings in Pasadena he went you know mechanically through it before that it wasn't running at all yeah for about 30 years out in front of a small mechanic Ironically in front of a mechanic shop and they uh got her running our biggest issue was just the idle rate um and then sometimes the throttle would stick right recently it's like to stick a little bit but you know nothing little WD-40 or something well it's funny because you know we live in such a disposable Society you know my mother's in Scotland and we went back one time and the local vicar came by to say hello to us you know and he was driving a 1962 Honda Bentley one of those motorcycles and I said oh did you restore this he went no I bought it new oh he bought it new he bought it new in 62. and he was still still because they take care of stuff here you know we we buy stuff like this we beat it in the ground we throw it away and then we buy the next thing exactly and then you get to be 25 or 30. oh I want to go back and get and then you go back looking for your childhood you know in Europe cars and motorcycles are precious things they don't have 50 cars in England I don't think like we have here you know there were so many when I was a kid you could buy a car for almost nothing find a car in a field but that didn't exist back then so I just thought that was funny he'd been driving this motorcycle for 45 50 years at the time so what can we take it for a ride absolutely sure let's see what it does oh you'll need those why thank you absolutely the key is almost as big as the car now we all going in we're playing rock paper scissors um I think you deserve the ride okay all right let's give it a shot plenty of room just a little bit original Muffler original Muffler [Music] she moves along pretty good it does doesn't it I mean like any classic sometimes they're temperamental sometimes they're happening right like I have a I have a 66 nothing special Mustang right I found on the side of the road in Montana right right I found out that he was abandoned uh it was for sale yeah um all original paint interior and on that on that same wavelength some days it will not make it from here to the red light on some days you know you drive from here to Orange County uh 280. no I'm sorry yeah 289 yeah yeah I want a manual I feel like you're driving you know you're involved yeah you're having fun smile on your face that's my only gripe about some of these modern cars is there's just so many nannies right right you know you never you're not you're not part of it as much as you are with something like this you have this in front or drums uh it's drum yeah four-wheel drum right yes for drama it's not bad no it sounds fine yeah you know I'm quite comfortable with this car it's okay more room than in my Bureau [Music] I like driving this thing it's a lot of fun right it's a little go-kart wallets they make this interconvertible was it always just a coupe I think there were like two or three yeah I think there were two or three but you know those are all in the wind yeah and these really were disposable people to throw them away absolutely they were fine mean I'm sure the body's rusted out long before the I could imagine I bet you're exactly right that was one of my biggest concerns when we were looking at this and it was thankful it was a California car this rust spot is actually from the original Shipping tracks when they tied it down on the boat on the back left corner right at the bottom there's a rough spot it's from where the straps rubbed on the boat exactly other than that so how long did it take you to slowly build your not the cars itself but the the facility of your garage I mean I never I wasn't trying to start a collection I just never sold anything yeah I parked up and buy something out for the only car I've ever sold there's my F-150 that was my first car ever bye but I mean they made millions of those so if I really want to go buy a grand 150 I can lightning 150 . those are crazy fools excellent those are very cool it's very cool yeah it's really good one of my buddies up in Montana they have one yeah and uh they drag raced my other friends perfomantes yeah whoops the performante oh yeah yeah oh it was hysterical you got 60 miles per gallon with this thing that's incredible like [Music] makes you think we got a load of bad fuel but I don't think yeah feels like the throttle's not coming in like it's loose feels like it's not getting fuel yeah it's either fuel or ignition three things in an engine it sounds like yeah now it's happy we got a fuel some gum some fuel a little gummy thing tell you what you do yeah I know what will fix it pop that gas okay it's pressure yeah I bet you're right you pinhole pinhole in your gas cap is blocked I bet you're exactly right filled the tank up so hang on that makes perfect sense I'll snag that key from you sorry about that no that's all right foreign I think I think we got a blocked uh gas cap I don't know it didn't feel pressure gas cap offer on cap is off [Music] tap here okay we found a problem gas cap has a breather on it I think the little hole is plugged that's got to be it see now we're fine I'm good we filmed the tank up all the way and there's always a certain amount of air in there but this is a problem you don't have a new car not at all it's like a classic old car problem so I thought oh hot just don't break down it's got to be something simple so that's what it was we had a clogged gasket cap on break it down to half a tank suck fuel but hopefully you learn something today see that we'll see you guys next week and uh thank your dad for me thank you very much Fox thanks a lot and uh thanks for saving this little piece of History absolutely check your cash see you guys next week next week [Music]

Channel: Jay Leno's Garage

Views: 43,940

Keywords: Honda, Z600, Harrison Woodruff, Buck Woodruff, restoration, preservation, car porn, car enthusiast, car guy, gearhead, mechanics, Japanese, future classics, Radwood

Id: -nOutIHSbEc

Length: 24min 33sec (1473 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 10 2022