Me and the Beat, we go back a long way. Ever since that giant book of convertibles I had in something like first grade, I’ve remembered the Beat because it stood out from the ’56 Cadillacs and ’64 Continentals and whatnot.
It’d be a decade before I had any idea what the hell keicar meant, but to this day, among the Honda That’s and the Suzuki MightyBoy, the Mitsubishi Town Box and Daihatsu Move, for me, the Beat stands alone.
Japanese automotive taxes are quite strict: very specific size, displacement, and power regulations group cars into categories determining the road tax they must pay; Japanese cars are more often than not designed to fit snugly into these categories to make them more attractive for potential customers. Japan’s Camry, in the ’90s, was an entirely different car from the one all the export markets were given simply so theirs could be small enough to fit into a lower bracket than the export car.
These cars show Japanese automakers’ most extreme efforts. There’s a very specific reason all the tiny cars you could buy in Gran Turismo had 660cc engines that made exactly 63 horsepower.
In March 1990, Japan raised the K-class maximum displacement from 550 to 660cc. This may be the move that incited Honda to show the world they could make a keicar exciting. Utilising a 656cc straight-3 with something called MTREC (translation: one throttle valve per cylinder), the Pininfarina-penned Beat made–you guessed it–63 brake horsepower at 8100 rpm (damn! that’s a lotta revs!).
Honda went on to sell the basic Beat design in 1995 to MG who then used it to build the MG F, which was the basis for the MG TF, which Hammond built into a limousine on Top Gear two years ago. Nice.
I have a couple of pictures of this Beat, but didn’t have the time to get the full set. Nice work. It’s a girl that owns it – she’s a friend of a friend or something like that. Apparently it was a bitch to get registered.
I’m sure it was, anything grey market is, isn’t it? I’m eternally jealous. She sounds like the kind of person I wanna be friends with.
I have warned my boyfriend that if that Beat goes up on craigslist I’m buying it, end of story….
Same goes for the adorable orange fiat spyder on tchoup.
Oh, man, I see that Fiat driving down Magazine when I’m walking to work or between CCs and work at least weekly. Do want. I have pictures of it sitting around, too.
Honk if you see the Stude this week, I’ll be driving it until Wednesday or so :p
“One throttle valve per cylinder”? Is that like too many words for “three carburetors”? If it is, big deal, Honda’s been doing one carb per cylinder since the sixties. My CB350F has four Keihins, just as one would expect.
Hey, I don’t know what it means, but I like it!
One carb per cylinder sounds pretty wow-inducing until you consider how many cylinders the Coupe Z600 and brethren had.
It must be completely awesome and scary to drive in America, top-down, you know? It’s a fear in which I would revel.
For whatever reason, Honda has always tried to maximize power output out of their small-displacement engines without using Turbo’s. Don’t know why they don’t like them, but Honda engineers have come up with all sorts of crazy tricks. VTEC is variable valve timing. MTREC varies the fuel inlet choke in relation to the rpm & each individual cylinder position. Most of the descriptions I’ve read relate it’s control to the “lean burn” setting on Honda Insights. Not exactly sure on the precise operating principal.
More on bonkers Honda engineering:
http://mobile.forbes.com/device/article.php?CALL_URL=http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2006/0904/112.html?
VTEC’s a pretty good answer to the turbo, or definitely was when it was first conceived–it’s all the turbo lag, without the turbocharger!
Thanks for the explanation, though. I’ve understood VTEC to varying degrees ever since I saw “VVT” on some Toyota engine many years ago, but MTREC was completely lost on me. I’ve always found it cool how strongly something like valve timing can affect the workings of an engine. The Atkinson cycle is a favourite of mine, though maybe I’m biased, and now that I’m finishing up thermodynamics I understand how it works!
You still in school?
Yeah, mechanical engineering at UNO. Between that and working 30 hours a week at the cigar shop, I’m left wishing I could crank out more than one update every three weeks, but that’s how it goes, I suppose!
BSME, Tulane ’06
If you need a hand or if some of my textbooks are the same as yours, I’ll do what I can to help out.
Thanks, I really appreciate that! I’d’ve likely ended up at Tulane myself if they hadn’t axed the engineering program, but alas.
Yeah, one of the last, unfortunately. That’s a real sore point for me. UNO is still excellent. They picked up several Tulane professors after Katrina. Say hello to Parviz in the EE department for me.
I went to Tulane on a partial scholarship and still ended up with tons of debt. I could have gotten an education at UNO and bought baby Lotus with all the debt I piled up. Got a good job, so it’s not that big of a deal, but once you’ve got your first job, your on the job performance matters FAR more than what school you went to.
The beat is a sweet little ride, though. I must say.
I came over here from Jalop and man am I glad I did, you’ve got some AWESOME stuff here, keep up the good work my man!
Thanks, dude! I really appreciate the good words 🙂
Fantastic photos, Sketch. Can’t wait to see more!
Point me to you COTD feature kind sir. Ha ha great site you got here. Now I am going to get twice as much nothing done at work.
Hey Sketchler-
Please fuzz out my license plate numbers on the Honda Beat. I like a little anonymity.
Thank you!
-M
No problem. Unfortunately I don’t think I’ll have time to get to Photoshop before work, but I’ll get them blurred out by tomorrow.
Just wondering, did you have to jump through a lot of hoops to get it registered here, or what?
Still waiting for that promised blurring of license plate numbers…
Thank you in advance.
Sorry. I’ve been busier than expected these last couple days. It’s done.
I’ve just got a beat with a snapped cam belt. Can’t wait to fix it and run around in it. They look well made, just taking mine to bits . I also have a rare Austin a30 countryman.I like ur site.