Starting Small: 1971 Honda Z600 Coupe and N600 Sedan brochure

Images are from the Hemmings Motor News brochure collection

Everybody has to start somewhere. And although the Honda Motor Company‘s first four-wheeled products were the brilliantly designed S(port)500/S600/S800 roadsters of the mid-1960s, Americans buyers weren’t able to purchase those through official channels. The first Honda cars that we could — and did — buy in those pre-Civic days were the Z600 Coupe and S600 Sedan, the front-wheel-drive pair that were virtually dwarfed by the contemporary best selling import, the Volkswagen.

1970 was the first model year that Honda cars were sold here, and this charming eight-page brochure is from the automaker’s sophomore year. We particularly love the flower power-painted Coupe, fresh off the showroom floor.

VTEC was decades off: the Coupe and Sedan shared a tiny 42-hp, 599-cc SOHC two-cylinder engine, and their circa-1,330-pound curb weights allowed them to reach a respectable 75 MPH on the freeway and up to 40 MPG. That this last figure is almost achievable today (39 MPG highway) in a 2,811-pound, 143-hp 2015 Civic sedan shows you how far we’ve come in 44 years.

Have you ever driven an air-cooled Honda car, like an early Sedan?

Click on the brochure images below to enlarge.