Honda Vamos

When I first wrote about the Honda Vamos in 2015, it was the same year a very normal-looking 1970 Nissan Z432 sold at auction in Amelia Island for $253,000 Usd.

These two things are connected because I know the car specialist is a reader of my newsletter, and to those who sell cars for a living, the result heralded a true shift in the collector car world: the rest of the world realizing that vintage Japanese cars are valuable.

You can trace it back for yourselves. From that result, to the year by year loosening of U.S. import restrictions mean the Haves are shipping over all manner of rare asf Japanese cars…and the smart Have-Nots are dedicating themselves to become a specialist for a few select late model cars and, most usually, kei trucks.

As collectors started dusting off the reference books they already owned, they were no doubt shocked to discover a tiny Honda truck with no cabin that to my eyes looks like a friendly bear…sled.

You maul the nicest people on a Honda Bearsled.

Anyway, it is a fluff of a truck, hopelessly slow and impractical in a modern sense, but top of the market examples are now — yes — collectable, with nice ones selling at auction in Japan for ¥2,500,000 or more. (If you have time off for the holidays, go browse Bingo Sports…) Ones already in North America are closer to $20,000 Usd. or more.

Mid-engined and rear-drive, the first Vamos was powered by a massive 354-cc 2-cylinder air-cooled engine, didn't have a fixed roof (only canvas), and at just 520 kg (1,146 lbs), it still would have been a slow bit of machinery. 

What's interesting to me is that Honda legitimately engineered it to be a sort of four-wheeled recreation machine, neatly predicting the coming side-by-side craze — its electrics and gauges are water and dust-proof. 

Payload? 200 kg (440 lbs), which is not much. Only 2,430 were produced across three years and its variants: two-seat, four-seat, and “no door” model that included a complete canopy top.