- This Yellow Pearl Honda Beat has a 656 cc three-cylinder with 63 hp and 44 lb-ft.
- Power from the tiny engine is sent to the rear wheels through a five-speed manual.
- While the three-cylinder lacks power, it revs through to a screaming 8,500 rpm.
If you live in the US and want to own a fun and lightweight sports car that won’t break the bank, the Mazda MX-5 is almost always the answer. If the correct answer bores you, though, then something like this Honda Beat might be right up your alley.
Read: This Honda Kei Van Needs A Lifetime And All Five Gears Just To Hit 60 MPH
Honda launched it in 1991, alongside Japan’s other pint-sized sports cars of the era, the Suzuki Cappuccino and Mazda’s gullwing-door AutoZam AZ-1. The Beat borrowed its layout from upstairs with an engine behind the seats and drive to the rear wheels. A baby NSX, in other words, squeezed into kei car rules. It stayed in production until early 1996, by which point Honda had built around 33,600 of them.
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This tiny, drop-top Kei car is painted in a bright shade of Yellow Pearl and has been imported into the US, currently titled in South Dakota. Obviously, at just over four feet across, it makes an MX-5 look full-size, and it gives up plenty of power to one as well. What it gets back is weight, and attention. Nothing pulls more stares than a car sharing a highway lane with a Ford F-150 that could flatten it without noticing.
Powering the Beat is a mid-mounted 656 cc three-cylinder making 63 hp (47 kW) and 44 lb-ft (60 Nm) of torque, routed to the rear wheels through a five-speed manual transmission. While the NSX made 270 hp and ran to 160 mph (257 km/h), the Beat runs out of road just short of 84 mph (135 km/h), though it weighs roughly 1,300 pounds (590 kg) less than the supercar it imitates. Fuel economy sits around 45 mpg, or 5.2 l/100 km, a figure no NSX owner ever got to brag about.
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This particular example has been modified with 15-inch wheels off a Honda Fit, an aftermarket exhaust, a new intake, a luggage rack, and an aftermarket steering wheel. The odometer reads 95,400 km, or about 59,300 miles, light mileage for something built in 1991.
This is no pristine, showroom-spec Honda Beat, however. The Cars & Bids listing notes the exterior has some blemishes; there’s a dent on the passenger-side quarter panel, the soft top has a tear, and interior surfaces also show signs of wear, including the seats and various trim panels. Even more important is that the air conditioning, tachometer, radio screen, and passenger window no longer work.
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While you may think there wouldn’t be anything particularly exciting about driving the Beat, the engine uses independent throttle bodies and revs to a sky-high 8,500 rpm, so while it’s small on power, it has a big personality. If you’re sold, and if sitting on the right side of a left-hand-drive country doesn’t scare you off, the listing is live over at C&B here.
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