I love these super basic little vehicles. I find it somewhat strange that cars have turned into boxes of attempted luxury. Technology out the wazzu and zero to 60 time obsession. Seats that hold you in as if the race track was the daily commute… I wish more vehicles like this were available here in the US. An American kei van would be amazing.
1:13 Thank you for mentioning the Trabi Tramp, it sucks that the car culture of the second world always gets dismissed as "eh shitty boring econoboxes for the opressed masses". We loved cars just as much as anyone and did our best to have fun with them.
Genuine question though, who was the Tramp for when most Trabant owners had to wait a decade before picking up their car? Was it mostly distributed to those well enough connected to skip the queue?
@@Munkenba Yea as far as I know. It was originally made as a runaround vechile for the DDR military but was later released for civilians. Since It was basically just a roofless 601 it wasnt a big status symbol but it was probably mostly for the well connected
@@Munkenba We also have to remember that the Eastern Bloc countries had a large degree of variation between their political systems so while the DDR was a hardline “those not with us must against us” dictatoriship all throughout its existence, Hungary for example was a much more moderate place with a “If you are not against us you are with us” approach and a grey market the authorities graciously ignored so Hungarians had easier acces to stuff like cars and refrigirators
When I lived in Panama, Suzuki offered a version of the samurai that was topless with half doors and not so much as a heater core. Sadly, here in the US we give up fun for safety. I don’t need 6 airbags and 5mph bumpers in a stripped down vehicle. I’m not against safety, but there are trade offs. The mileage on some of the kie class vehicles was amazing.
This is awesome. Jason is living my ideal life. I’ve seen his fleet because I live down the street from him and he has a great eccentric collection so far. I salute you jason
@@datadavis thankfully yes. I got put off at an early age due to a few deaths in our small village, and so I was talking from a non-motorcyclist's point of view. Have had a few narrow squeaks on a push-bike though, busses can be pretty scary!
Oh yes, the Renault Rodeo of the early 70's. I've owned A Mini-Moke, Citroen 2CV's, Meharis- the Rodeo was an ABSOLUTE BLAST to drive! The windshield folded down, like old Jeeps or the Moke (IIRC), and it was like driving a four-wheel motorcycle. If you were young and stupid, like me and my friends, you could stand up in the back and hang onto the roll bar at 72 mph- top speed. The perfect summer beach car. Maybe a Meyer Manx was more fun, I never drove one. I was in St. Tropez in 2005 on a sailing trip, there was a Ferrari show in the Harbor, which didn't interest me at all. But I spotted a Rodeo for sale! I think it was around $1200 or 1300!! I spoke with the owner. I couldn't convince the guys I was with to give me a couple days to buy it and arrange shipping. I'm still bugged over that! Very rare car in the U.S., although I did see one on BAT not too long ago, but the later model, not the early one. It has twice the power of the Mehari, and is more civilised -water cooled four, front-wheel drive. I will own one before I get too old!!
Saw a guy in the modern equivalent of these in Seattle last week, the little cab over pickup by Honda. Huge guy in such a tiny vehicle was awesome to see. I want one!!
I would assume these types of things were made to be pretty cheap and to serve both rural and urban transportation in Asia and third world in the 70s? I.e. you could use this as a little city taxi or maybe between villages and towns in the countryside if the roads were good enough. (And if not two or three guys could probably just pull this out of the mud by hand.)
You'd be removing 150lbs of motor, transaxle, gas tank to put in 1000lbs of battery and 200 lbs of motive. That would change the momentum physics of the jeep. Brakes, suspension, weight distribution, space would likely be killed. This basically has a small bike, motorcycle engine and pressed gas tank. Maybe with two hub motor wheels and a 70km battery, but it'd be easier to buy a slingshot and convert it that way.... Like Aptera did, slapped some novelty solar panels on a Jetsons fiberglass shell and claimed they created it. Investors Anyone?
This is beautiful!! I didn't know that and it was love at first sight. Why don't they take the liberty of being so creative on wheels anymore? Cars are boring these days... Take EVs, for instance: don't you see the story of going from the horse-drawn wagon to the combustion engine without reactive formal solutions? The most iconic EV is the most boring thing in the world, keeping the same formal solutions that were adopted over time to accommodate the CE, when, with the new mechanics and without the old restrictions, they could reinvent the concept of “car”. All they did was remove the combustion engine's front cooling grill, everything else was kept the same. How can anyone dare to think this guy from Tesla is an innovator? For the love of God... That's one of the reasons I don't take EV serious. It ends up being a battery operated toy... BTW: "Vamos" is a portuguese word that means "let's go". Honda did it!
The Vamos certainly suited the market it was designed for. Essentially a multi use vehicle for the Japanese, Asian and similar markets across the world. I can only presume it was made affordable for anyone.
Very cool and practical today; just look at everyone buying the absurdly expensive UTV's and golf carts. An electric conversion would be interesting. I wonder if the 360cc engine is the same as that used on Honda's CB360 motorcycle from the mid-70's.
Love your "non-rationale" car reviews! I must have caught the "bug" with the first car I bought, a 69 Volkwagen Beetle... Agree so many vehicles just have too much extra crap.. a problem if you've always done your own maintenance as I do...
Honda doesn't make mistakes, they just occasionally make vehicles customers don't understand or appreciate. Example: the GL500 Silverwing. It was an interstate cruiser that was smaller, cheaper, hyper reliable, and easier to handle and daily than the huge Goldwing. But all people noticed it wasn't luxurious enough for fancy cruiser types, and was too slow. You only appreciate it now that there are no cheap cruisers, at all.
This concept does live today though, in UTV's, which in many places they reside in the US are either legal to drive on the road or are "legal" to drive on the road.
Its nifty, but I'd rather go with a Steyr-Puch Haflinger instead (then you get serious off road capability ... 4 wheel drive, portal axles and locking diffs).
Mr Torchinsky: Interesting car! Nice video! By the way: VAMOS in Portuguese means Let's go! It can be an order or invitation. Depending on the proper intonation. And sometimes: Hurry up! Striped off to the car's essentials, the name makes all sense in Portuguese language! My best regards. Fro a brazilianik 🇧🇷
In the 90's, my dad was able to get his hands on one of the original N600 prototypes. Only 50 were ever made. From what I understand, it was basically an N360 with with a 590cc powerplant. I believe it was a '67/'68. I was a teenager at the time and it was by far the smallest car I'd ever seen.
I didn’t get what year it was made. I tried to buy a Honda S800 in 1967, but Honda Inc, (to their credit) advised me not to buy it as it would be a stand alone with no parts or service.
Personally, I love it. It looks like a fantastic roast about vehicle for people with large properties or with properties that may extend onto the beach. No it's not an everyday driver or anything like that. But I don't think that's what it was designed for. I give it two thumbs up myself
About the closet I can come is the Regular Cab Toyota and Nissan Pickup Trucks. My late 89 Nissan Pickup was as simple as anything that was built in the U.S.
It does and The Moke may soon make a comeback as an ev or with a slightly larger engine than the original it's on offer in the UK in 14 different colours
@@bernardtaylor7768 The Moke would be ideal as an EV, it is light weight to begin with and the box sections either side would be ideal for the batteries and it would not need a Tesla style centre console as it would look out of place just something reminiscent of the one Mini centre cluster would be nice.
The weirdest car Honda ever made hands down is the first gen Insight, but the Vamos comes pretty close tbh. I'd still rather have the later Vamos Toaster that was based off the Acty Van from 2001 though.
I remember the 360's. Why a displacement of 360CC? 360 CC and under in Japan was a lower road TAX than 361 CC and above. Why don't they make them anymore, Two Cycle engines make smog just like if it was needed.
My 2010 Honda is a rust bucket due to garbage paint process that doesn't get better until you pay Acura prices. So I just replaced it with a mostly plastic car!
Very cool, a stripped out K car. Was is this thing actually imported new to the states? He didn’t really talk about that and I’ve never seen them before
I wonder how many thousands of dollars that small simple utilitarian micro vehicle costs to import over here from Japan??? $10k? $20k? God I hate the chicken tax and everything that the import laws have imposed on our ability to get large amounts of reasonably priced JDM Legends...
Looks like something henchmen would drive around in an old Bond villain’s volcano lair
I get the same impression whenever I see a Cushman.
I love these super basic little vehicles. I find it somewhat strange that cars have turned into boxes of attempted luxury. Technology out the wazzu and zero to 60 time obsession. Seats that hold you in as if the race track was the daily commute… I wish more vehicles like this were available here in the US. An American kei van would be amazing.
mitsubishi mirage exists and is sold in america
exactly! like the tiny 90s japanese kei trucks are so perfect and so simple at the same time.
Too many Americans who said yes to biggie sizing their triple whopper combo to fit in a kei size vehicle. Most can't fit in a WW2 Jeep.
Get an old 'flatfender' Jeep.
@@markchapmon8670 Truth be told, no one gets 'in' a WW2 or early CJ 'Jeep', one sits _on_ them.
1:13 Thank you for mentioning the Trabi Tramp, it sucks that the car culture of the second world always gets dismissed as "eh shitty boring econoboxes for the opressed masses". We loved cars just as much as anyone and did our best to have fun with them.
Genuine question though, who was the Tramp for when most Trabant owners had to wait a decade before picking up their car? Was it mostly distributed to those well enough connected to skip the queue?
@@Munkenba Yea as far as I know. It was originally made as a runaround vechile for the DDR military but was later released for civilians. Since It was basically just a roofless 601 it wasnt a big status symbol but it was probably mostly for the well connected
@@Munkenba We also have to remember that the Eastern Bloc countries had a large degree of variation between their political systems so while the DDR was a hardline “those not with us must against us” dictatoriship all throughout its existence, Hungary for example was a much more moderate place with a “If you are not against us you are with us” approach and a grey market the authorities graciously ignored so Hungarians had easier acces to stuff like cars and refrigirators
@@Munkenba The Trabant in general was exported to other countrys like Hungary or Poland and the Tramp was for countrys like spain.
When I lived in Panama, Suzuki offered a version of the samurai that was topless with half doors and not so much as a heater core.
Sadly, here in the US we give up fun for safety. I don’t need 6 airbags and 5mph bumpers in a stripped down vehicle.
I’m not against safety, but there are trade offs. The mileage on some of the kie class vehicles was amazing.
This is awesome. Jason is living my ideal life. I’ve seen his fleet because I live down the street from him and he has a great eccentric collection so far. I salute you jason
I bet those doors could be easily converted to single shot survival shotguns😅
They don't make the Vamos because of lack of safety, yet they still make motorbikes 🤔 I know which I would prefer on a wet night.
My KLR!
People who have never ridden a motorcycle: Motorcycles are unsafe!
@@datadavis I will tell that to my dead or permanently crippled friends, they will be reassured.
@@MattBrownbill and most people ride their whole lives happily without getting killed or maimed
@@datadavis thankfully yes. I got put off at an early age due to a few deaths in our small village, and so I was talking from a non-motorcyclist's point of view. Have had a few narrow squeaks on a push-bike though, busses can be pretty scary!
“Mechanical magic carpet” is such a delightful phrase
Flatfender Jeep with no roll bar, windshield down = 4WD roller skate.
😂😂😂
An amazing thing 👍😂😂😂
Oh yes, the French did that also with the Citroen Mehari, based on the 2CV and Renault had a similar vehicle, based on the R4.
Oh yes, the Renault Rodeo of the early 70's. I've owned A Mini-Moke, Citroen 2CV's, Meharis- the Rodeo was an ABSOLUTE BLAST to drive! The windshield folded down, like old Jeeps or the Moke (IIRC), and it was like driving a four-wheel motorcycle. If you were young and stupid, like me and my friends, you could stand up in the back and hang onto the roll bar at 72 mph- top speed. The perfect summer beach car. Maybe a Meyer Manx was more fun, I never drove one.
I was in St. Tropez in 2005 on a sailing trip, there was a Ferrari show in the Harbor, which didn't interest me at all. But I spotted a Rodeo for sale! I think it was around $1200 or 1300!! I spoke with the owner. I couldn't convince the guys I was with to give me a couple days to buy it and arrange shipping. I'm still bugged over that! Very rare car in the U.S., although I did see one on BAT not too long ago, but the later model, not the early one.
It has twice the power of the Mehari, and is more civilised -water cooled four, front-wheel drive. I will own one before I get too old!!
Oh yeah, but French cars are real pos's
Seems to me very similar to the fully off road Steyr Puch Haflinger from Austria.
It hasn’t even “got” a hinge that door, it is the hinge . Genius . Love your videos .
Saw a guy in the modern equivalent of these in Seattle last week, the little cab over pickup by Honda. Huge guy in such a tiny vehicle was awesome to see. I want one!!
looking at the thumbnail, I thought you were reviewing either an obscure WWII Jeep concept, or a 1960s people mover painted OD green.
I would assume these types of things were made to be pretty cheap and to serve both rural and urban transportation in Asia and third world in the 70s? I.e. you could use this as a little city taxi or maybe between villages and towns in the countryside if the roads were good enough. (And if not two or three guys could probably just pull this out of the mud by hand.)
A door from a roller coaster
Only way to make it more perfect was to make it 70s orange 😀- what an amazing little machine.
I wouldn't mind it having at least 80hp too
This would be beautiful with electric powertrain. The thing would fly
Would be dangerous AF to make one fast, without extensive safety equipment.
@@Sheridantank and the problem is..........? 😆
You'd be removing 150lbs of motor, transaxle, gas tank to put in 1000lbs of battery and 200 lbs of motive.
That would change the momentum physics of the jeep. Brakes, suspension, weight distribution, space would likely be killed.
This basically has a small bike, motorcycle engine and pressed gas tank.
Maybe with two hub motor wheels and a 70km battery, but it'd be easier to buy a slingshot and convert it that way....
Like Aptera did, slapped some novelty solar panels on a Jetsons fiberglass shell and claimed they created it. Investors Anyone?
Then it would b just a dumb golf cart. Perfect as is.
Reminds me of those vehicles they use to unload plane luggage.
Tugs
I'm loving it. A skateboard with windshield and two seats.
It needs some sort of VTEC implementation to deserve the Honda badge in my opinion 🤣
This is beautiful!!
I didn't know that and it was love at first sight.
Why don't they take the liberty of being so creative on wheels anymore?
Cars are boring these days...
Take EVs, for instance: don't you see the story of going from the horse-drawn wagon to the combustion engine without reactive formal solutions?
The most iconic EV is the most boring thing in the world, keeping the same formal solutions that were adopted over time to accommodate the CE, when, with the new mechanics and without the old restrictions, they could reinvent the concept of “car”.
All they did was remove the combustion engine's front cooling grill, everything else was kept the same.
How can anyone dare to think this guy from Tesla is an innovator?
For the love of God...
That's one of the reasons I don't take EV serious. It ends up being a battery operated toy...
BTW: "Vamos" is a portuguese word that means "let's go". Honda did it!
You say Hondas are always the sensible, boring choice, but I think the Del Sol, 2000 Insight, Ridgeline and CR-Z give a good dose of quirky.
What about that hatchback SUV Accord thing?
@@GreenJeep1998, that's what most cars look like now, so while it was strange for its time, it's not that quirky now.
Edited for spelling
I wonder if a little car like this is better for the environment than the type of electric car we have today.
If you painted this white it could have been used in a Bonds villains top secret volcano lair for his henchmen to drive around in ...
i am in love with this simple car and i wish manufactures reconsider building simple inexpensive machines like this again for simple daily usage
The Vamos certainly suited the market it was designed for. Essentially a multi use vehicle for the Japanese, Asian and similar markets across the world. I can only presume it was made affordable for anyone.
Morgan's, mini Mokes, beach buggies & sand rails...
Real driving fun . Like riding a motorcycle .
Very cool and practical today; just look at everyone buying the absurdly expensive UTV's and golf carts. An electric conversion would be interesting. I wonder if the 360cc engine is the same as that used on Honda's CB360 motorcycle from the mid-70's.
Didn't Fred Flinstone drive that thing?
Love your "non-rationale" car reviews! I must have caught the "bug" with the first car I bought, a 69 Volkwagen Beetle... Agree so many vehicles just have too much extra crap.. a problem if you've always done your own maintenance as I do...
Honda doesn't make mistakes, they just occasionally make vehicles customers don't understand or appreciate. Example: the GL500 Silverwing. It was an interstate cruiser that was smaller, cheaper, hyper reliable, and easier to handle and daily than the huge Goldwing. But all people noticed it wasn't luxurious enough for fancy cruiser types, and was too slow. You only appreciate it now that there are no cheap cruisers, at all.
That passenger side headlight being installed wrong was driving me crazy.
Way back in 1973 I had a matchbox one of these
I want more cars like this. Small, fun, roughly fuel efficient and useful.
Thank you for sharing this absolute gem of originality and fun!
I had never seen or heard of these before seeing this video.
This concept does live today though, in UTV's, which in many places they reside in the US are either legal to drive on the road or are "legal" to drive on the road.
It's a modern buckboard! What! No VTEC?
Its nifty, but I'd rather go with a Steyr-Puch Haflinger instead (then you get serious off road capability ... 4 wheel drive, portal axles and locking diffs).
So basically, it's a big golf Cart.
The company that gave us the Pinzgauer also made the haflinger in 1959. they called it that because it’s pretty much half the size of a Pinzgauer.
Haflinger is also the name of an Austrian horse breed. Steyr is from Austria.
Don’t forget the Citroen Mahari!
Step vans used to have that door bar .our fleet had them 20 years ago before we got AC in them
"..forced at...knifepoint.." lmao a statement worth a little psychological study...🤣😂🤣
That's probably the 1st Honda car!
I'd consider buying!
I like their BIKES! But the car's have no designs I really like!
It's "VAH-mos", Spanish for "Let's go".
I love the old strange vehicles like this one but if I took it shopping someone would trash it
Mr Torchinsky:
Interesting car! Nice video!
By the way:
VAMOS in Portuguese means Let's go! It can be an order or invitation. Depending on the proper intonation.
And sometimes: Hurry up!
Striped off to the car's essentials, the name makes all sense in Portuguese language!
My best regards.
Fro a brazilianik 🇧🇷
Japanese minitrucks are becoming very popular now. We own a Dihatsu Hijet, which is similar to this It is a blast!
In the 90's, my dad was able to get his hands on one of the original N600 prototypes.
Only 50 were ever made.
From what I understand, it was basically an N360 with with a 590cc powerplant. I believe it was a '67/'68.
I was a teenager at the time and it was by far the smallest car I'd ever seen.
This seems like the sort of thing that would appeal to James May, in one of his shows.
The T360 was Honda's first four wheeler.Honda TN360 truck and can follwed, then Acty ,which I ran four of, over twenty years.
I didn’t get what year it was made. I tried to buy a Honda S800 in 1967, but Honda Inc, (to their credit) advised me not to buy it as it would be a stand alone with no parts or service.
It just a UTV that's kind of street legal.
I need food and water and that! 😎
all 4 of the cars you described were military vehicles also sold to the civilian market.
Only Honda would build a golf cart and market it as a car, and get away with it. I love it
It's like a big Gator utility cart thing.
I would do some wild things for one of those. It is one of the coolest vehicles I've seen in a while. I would love to use one for a work vehicle.
Personally, I love it. It looks like a fantastic roast about vehicle for people with large properties or with properties that may extend onto the beach. No it's not an everyday driver or anything like that. But I don't think that's what it was designed for. I give it two thumbs up myself
Still regret not getting a Citroën Mehari when I could.
Interesting note, the Vamos is still being made though now is a mini mini van for around 12k
About the closet I can come is the Regular Cab Toyota and Nissan Pickup Trucks. My late 89 Nissan Pickup was as simple as anything that was built in the U.S.
It looks like the Japanese version of the Mini Moke🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
It does and The Moke may soon make a comeback as an ev or with a slightly larger engine than the original it's on offer in the UK in 14 different colours
@@bernardtaylor7768 The Moke would be ideal as an EV, it is light weight to begin with and the box sections either side would be ideal for the batteries and it would not need a Tesla style centre console as it would look out of place just something reminiscent of the one Mini centre cluster would be nice.
The Vamos is not dissimilar to Steyr-Puch's Haflinger, which was probably the very first of these Multipurpose light utility vehicles.
A couple of thousand lawyers agreed with Jason when he said it's a shame they don't build car like that anymore...
All rght! That is pretty danged cool! It reminds me of a modern off-roading ATV vehicle like those polaris ones. And Vamos is "let's go" in Spanish.
And Brandon in Spanish is what?
@@carbide1968
"Joe Biden sucks."
This is not a car. This is a go-kart that thinks it's a car.
Nice right-hand-drive love it
Drop a Hyabusa engine in it 😬😬
Shifting with the left hand would suck
The weirdest car Honda ever made hands down is the first gen Insight, but the Vamos comes pretty close tbh. I'd still rather have the later Vamos Toaster that was based off the Acty Van from 2001 though.
Mid engined ultra light sports car. How cutting edge!
There's a few military vehicles on that list of "fun vehicles"
the engine sound is WAAY too eager and exciting for a car that looks like that
I remember the 360's. Why a displacement of 360CC? 360 CC and under in Japan was a lower road TAX than 361 CC and above. Why don't they make them anymore, Two Cycle engines make smog just like if it was needed.
Spanish for "Let's go!" That's about the most basic way to go there is.
This car is closer to Ariel Atom than I would like to admit.
360 cc 2 cylinder air cooled engine … it’s more like a motorcycle with a capacity of 4 +
Nice. Make mine a double cab. It struck me as sounding a lot like a golf cart when it drives. Probably not far from a golf cart mechanically either.
It's the foreign frugal military mechanical chariot. 🙂
1971: Military Car
2021: Fun Utility Vehicle
Honda made a 50cc motorbike that folded down to a suitcase
Looks like a copy of the Soviet/Russian LUAZ 967M to me. The Soviets made some truly unique cars.....
Wouldn't want to get in a collision with it.
My 2010 Honda is a rust bucket due to garbage paint process that doesn't get better until you pay Acura prices. So I just replaced it with a mostly plastic car!
The car you dint know you wanted or needed.
The VW and the Trabant weren't built for the normal people. These Cars were never intended for the mass market, military only .
The precursor to the sport utility vehicle.
Very cool, a stripped out K car. Was is this thing actually imported new to the states? He didn’t really talk about that and I’ve never seen them before
It looks like something you'd expect to see driving around military bases.
rockjays or in a Bond flick.
What is the top speed on the Vamous?
Do they even still make it and where can I get it
A little machine with wheels that moves you somewhere
It's a golf cart.
Love to see this next to a side-by-side.
i really really want THIS .
That is simply spectacular.
It’s pronounced VAH-MOS like the Spanish word for “let’s go”.
Great!
Now I want one.
I wonder how many thousands of dollars that small simple utilitarian micro vehicle costs to import over here from Japan??? $10k? $20k? God I hate the chicken tax and everything that the import laws have imposed on our ability to get large amounts of reasonably priced JDM Legends...