Hondina: S800

It’s the Italian F1 Grand Prix weekend, so I headed over to my grandfather’s house to watch the qualifying. Hidden in his garage is a car that he’s had for a quite a while now.

A little Honda S800. I don’t think there is any car that can make this look big or normal sized, parked behind it is a Toyota Yaris which is enourmous in comparison.

My head sticks well over the top of the windscreen, I’m a bit oversized for this machine.

Honda interiors were never known for their quality, only recently they have become quite nice. It has character though…

…, the oversized switches are a bit funky.

They have a solid, mechanical touch to them, probably because most of them are mechanical but it’s something you don’t feel nowadays.

11,000!!! Well 8,500rpm redline is damn good for back them.

So classic.

What an engine. To have almost 100hp per litre back then is insane, many cars today cannot match that.

ITBs.

RENTAL CAR: Insignia

My University was kind enough to hire a car for me to take stuff and fellow team mates down to Silverstone. They didn’t skimp out when choosing either, they didn’t just give me an Insignia, but the Elite version.

The Monkey Bike

Here’s something a bit different:

A Honda Z50J from the 70s. This little monkey bike has been in the family well before I was born and my dad bought it in Zambia before he moved to Italy. When the time came to move to Italy he didn’t want to part ways with it and shipping it up would be too costly. Given its small size he decided to strip it down and pack it into his suitcases and simply fly it over with him and then reassemble. You couldn’t do that nowadays!

There’s more…

Feature – Toyota Celica GT ST182

For my first feature I’ll do my car, it’s not amazing, nor is it what I would buy right now if I had a choice, but as it’s first car I do love it.

It’s a 1993 Toyota Celica GT ST182 and I bought it over a year ago. At the time I wanted something JDM and reasonably quick, I was also very interested in drifting (and still am) so naturally I wanted a 200SX RPS13. With nothing on the used car market in Italy that was a reasonable price (they were all 5000 euros and up, ridiculous!) and within 700km I started looking for something else. There isn’t much else FR when it comes to cheap here, AE86 don’t exist, 3-series were too expensive to insure (for an 18 year old) and everything else was too expensive. Having loved Rally from when I was a small child I started looking at some Celicas, I obviously wanted and old one and at this point didn’t mind FF. Saw this car online at a very good price and in very good condition and got it.

This car is my daily driver for when I’m in Italy so I wanted to keep it fairly stock with a few light mods for tracks days and the odd touge.

To improve the looks of the car slightly I’ve mounted some 5-spoke OEM wheels in white from the latest Gen Celica. The car is also 30mm lower thanks to some Eibach Pro-Kit springs. The car would look much better if it sat another 30mm lower but it already rubs at full lock.

Because it’s the EU ST182 version it comes with the good 3SGE engine. A 2.0l 16v DOHC N/A. Rated at 162hp stock with a 7200rpm limiter I’m pretty pleased with the performance. There’s a K&N replacement air filter, a lighter Energizer battery and an Auto Kool OEM spec Aluminium radiator.

I was pleased by how well the interior had been maintained, all I had to do was make some knobs for the climate control in Alu and Teflon as the stock plastic pieces had broken and are known to be very weak. I also deleted the cup holder as I never use it and have yet to see one actually stay closed. For some weight saving I’ve removed the rear seats, plus none of my friends could fit in the back due to the very low slanting roof.

One of my favourite additions is the RAZO Aluminium Formula Silver shift knob. It’s a good replacement for people wanting the Nismo one but don’t have a Nissan.

With a few lighter parts and some removed, 30kg have been shaved.

Snowing at Monza = FUN.

I can’t see myself having this car for much longer, I’ve already started planning my next one and it’s most definitely going to be FR.

Ben