Three Flavors of Honda S800...Mild, Wild, and WTF

I've never seen a Honda S800 in real life. I doubt I'll ever drive one, much less own one. Much like it's main competitors, mainly the Fiat 850, Austin-Healey Sprite, Triumph Spitfire, and MG Little Person, small size, small displacement roadsters have never been popular in a country where bigger automatically means better. Even when it isn't.

But thanks to Tamiya's excellent duo of S800 kits, I can "park" one on my display shelf. I can een do something crazy like stuff a Chrysler Hemi into one, and not have to live with the consequences like I would doing it full scale. Duo? Why, yes! Tamiya offers a stock version with the unique chain drive rear axle, steel wheels with chrome center caps, a boot, up top, or hard top, and a nice little slant 4. The racing version substitutes a solid rear axle, side draft cars, header, racing seats, and magnesium wheels in place of the stock equivalents, and has the racing hard top, which was chunkier than the standard hard top to make room for a roll cage.

I've built three of these kits and I'd love to do a review. Thing is, I've never built one stock. The red one is close, but even then I used the intake from the racing version, and some parts box baby Moon hub caps. I will say this- that one went together well, but the stock hard top isn't the best fit. There's a small gap between the bottom edge and the body. It is rare to find a Tamiya kit with a gap like that, but there you go. Other than that the kit gave me no issues.

The dry transfers on my kit didn't quite work, but they'd been stuffed in the box since 1997. I had to borrow a couple of unused dry transfers from the racing kit to finish the stock one. The small medallions below the Honda scripts are decals.

The hub caps came from an AMT parts pack. The stock caps have a small Honda logo. I saved those for use on another project as I had planned on using different wheels and tires on this when I started it. That plan fell through, but I opted to add the plain caps just for a personal touch.

Here you can see the terrible gap between the top and trunk panel. It is the one nit pick I have about the kit.

The interior is simple but looks wonderful, just like the real car. There were a handful of LHD S800s built, but they're rare, so I left this one RHD. Yes, it has a Michigan plate but you could import a classic S800, so why not?

The engine is a little jewel. All I did was add wiring, and swap on the carb and air cleaner setup from the racing version. I have one of these engines sitting around with the intent to use it in a T-bucket style rod.

So, there's mostly stock. The next two are much further than stock.

I had the notion to "Carroll Shelby" one. I.E.- swap in a small block Ford V8. I know some people are anal about mixing 1:24 and 1:25 kit parts, but I'm fine with it. You're talking about miniscule differences, and that's if you're bold enough to assume the stuff you're using is accurately scaled to begin with. So, the 1:24 scale Honda got a 1:25 5.0 from a Revell 1990 Mustang. Why not use a 1:24 Monogram engine? Because I didn't have one. That's why.

Let's just say that lots of cutting and trimming was required to fit the V8 in there. And even more cutting and trimming was required to fit the wheels. Those are from the Revell 1950 Ford F-1, with Toyo tires from a Revell Tuner series kit. Also, as you can see, a big hole was needed to clear the intake plenum.

I opted for a muted color on this one- Testors One Coat Bronze if I recall. I also cut out the grille bars and cut a mesh insert. The same material was used for the scoop opening. The scoop itself was made from .030" plastic strip.

Much like with the Shelby Cobra, there is no room under this car for an exhaust, mandating the side pipes. I tinted the little lights under the headlights because the original turn signals were in the grille bar. Now they're under the headlights. I never took any pictures but I did make a LHD dash for this one.

I still like the 20" wheels, but I might swap on some 15" Halibrands at some point. I was going for a more modern interpretation of my "Shelby Honda" idea, and I love the look of these wheels.

The racing hard top is a much better fit than the top included in the stock version. In hindsight I wish I'd filled in the now-useless stock exhaust cutouts. Oh well....

Barely any room in the engine bay anymore. I had to angle the air cleaner to the rear of the car due to space constraints. Yes, that's an air conditioning compressor. The engine is from the 1990 Mustang drag car, with the optional Edelbrock plenum and some parts box finned vale covers.

And after these two, I went really nuts on the third one...

I had the notion to do a "gasser" style S800. I only ended up using about five or six parts from the Honda kit, it seems like- the rest was kitbashed or scratch built. Here you can see the front wheels and tires from an AMT Depth Charger, while the rear rollers came from the Revell Slingster Dragster.

The engine is the 392 Hemi from the old AMT parts pack. This one had to be a crazy color, so I went with Testors Lime Ice.

I had to use the Heads by Hondason decals from the latest AMT 1953 Studebaker release, for obvious reason. The GL&H Speed Shop graphics came from an AMT parts pack decal sheet, and the rest came from several sources. The headlight covers and chin spoiler were coated in BMF to simulate aluminum. I cut out the grille bars but I didnt' bother with an instert on this one.

There is no interior to speak of, as you'd expect on a vehicle of this type. I'm very happy with the stance I got on this one. Other than the rear wheel openings being radiused the body is stock.

More "aluminum" inhabits the areas which once housed the taillights. There's also a big ol' 'chute pack.

The centerpiece of the car.... the supercharged Chrysler 392 Hemi. The epitome of "ten pounds of shit in a five pound bag".... that's basically what I was going for with this project, and I think it's exactly what I got.

Stuff like this is what I love about model building. One car, numerous possibilities. And all for much less cash outlay and a lot less headache than trying it full scale. And if it's a crazy idea that would ruin a real car, you can do it in scale and not have to live with the terrible driveability that the real thing would have. A Hemi powered S800 would be terrible as an acutal car, but it lookd great on a display shelf. When people... typically non-modelers, or non-car people... ask me why I have more than one of a particular kit in my stash, I show them stuff like this. You can do numerous different things with one subject. Remember that you are never limited to what is shown on the box! Projects like these Hondas are proof.