What makes a good sports car? A long bonnet? Raw power? Big fat tyres and twin exhausts? Not necessarily – for since the 1950s right up to the modern day a band of tiny, small-engined two-seaters has proved
Here at Adrian Flux, we provide cover for everything from the cutest little roadster to the most brutal supercar. We take a walk through the history of the micro sports car.
Has any car in history had a cuter face than the Austin Healey Sprite? The Sprite’s bulbous headlights quickly saw it nicknamed Frogeye (Bugeye in the US) after its introduction in 1958.
Using a hand-tuned version of BMC’s A-series, 948cc engine used in the Morris Minor among others, the Sprite produced 43bhp pushing the little car to a maximum of 80mph.
Neither that or the 0-60mph time of just over 20 seconds sound impressive by sports car standards, but the roller-skate-like handling, low driving position and diminutive proportions added up to a whole heap of fun.
Indeed, Autocar wrote in 1958: “The performance alone of the Sprite shows that the model is much more than a runabout. The Sprite is at its most satisfying on winding roads, on which its exceptionally good roadholding can be appreciated to the full - the way in which it goes round corners is a delight.
“The little Austin-Healey Sprite has the sort of charm that grows with acquaintance. It exhibits so many pleasant characteristics on the road, does much more - and does it better - than the specification suggests, and shows every indication of providing many miles of lively motoring at very low operating cost.”
The Sprite was in production from 1958 to 1971, sharing its body from 1961 with the MG Midget.
Until 1963 Honda was exclusively known as a motorcycle manufacturer, and its first production car - the pretty little S500 – showed it could turn its hand to cars with equal flair.
Powered by a tiny 531cc engine with double overhead camshaft and no fewer than four carburettors, the S500 revved right up to 9,500rpm and produced 44bhp at 8,000rpm.
Only 1,363 S500s were made before the engine was increased to 606cc with the S600, resulting in a top speed of 90mph from 57bhp – enough to give a standard Porsche 356 a run for its money.
More than 13,000 roadsters and coupes were built before the S800 arrived in 1966, with capacity now 791cc and output 70bhp, incredibly pushing the top speed above 100mph to make it the world’s fastest sub 1-litre car.
The high-revving S800 – red-lining now at 10,000rpm – was light years ahead of the British small sports cars of the time, with MGB performance from MG Midget dimensions and 35mpg to boot. Which makes it all the more surprising that it took the Japanese manufacturer another 30 years to make another S-car (the S2000) following the demise of the S800 in 1970, with 11,536 sold.
The changes in Japanese Kei-car regulations in 1990 spawned a rash of small-engined roadsters, with the Honda Beat leading the way.
Kei-cars are a special category of small car designed to meet Japanese tax and insurance regulations, and in 1990 the permitted engine capacity was increased to 660cc, with an output of 64bhp, and the length increased by 100mm.
As we’ve seen, Honda had a history of producing great small sports cars, and the Beat proved no exception. A mid-mounted engine and wheel-at-each-corner design gave it go-kart-like handling, while the top speed was electronically limited to 84mph.
The styling was everything you wanted in a sports car, only smaller, and cars came with air conditioning, a five-speed gearbox and electric windows.
What’s not to like? Some 33,600 were made between 1991 and 1996.
The Mazda AZ-1 arrived a little later to the Kei-car party, in 1992 – but it’s by far the most unusual and exotic of our trio of little wonders.
With mini-Ferrari looks and gullwing doors, the car is also pleasingly rare, with just 4,392 ever leaving the factory, adding to its value today.
The Mazda used Suzuki’s 657cc Kei-car engine mounted behind the seats, and the turbo gave the car more mid-range torque than the Honda Beat.
A true mini-supercar.
The original Smart Fortwo was a game-changer in modern city car design, and it wasn’t long before the company (owned by Daimler-Benz) hit upon the idea of using a stretched version of the platform for a small roadster.
The result was the Smart Roadster, launched in 2003 with a turbo-charged 698cc engine pushing out either 60 or 80bhp (the coupe was fitted with only the more powerful version).
Cute and quirky to look at, but not cheap to buy new at about £14,000, the Roadster proved a critical success and was named Top Gear’s Fun Car of the Year for 2005.
Unlike the similar-sized Kei-cars of the 90s, the Smart was properly swift for a car of its size, reaching a top speed of 112mph and hitting 60mph in 10.5 seconds, all while achieving more than 50mpg to boot.
Unfortunately, some of the cars leaked and warranty costs equal to about €3,000 per vehicle meant the car was not a commercial success, despite more than 43,000 sales.
Looking a little like a road-going beach buggy, the Secma QT500 is the most off-the-wall selection on our list.
Billed as “the perfect introduction to sports car motoring”, the QT500 features frogeye lights, literally a wheel at each corner and a no-frills interior.
A five-speed gearbox is married to a 505cc Lombardini engine, producing 21bhp. Clearly the aim is pure fun, but the car will hit 70mph and its light weight leads to some brisk acceleration. You wouldn’t want to take it far on the M1, but for enjoying rural back roads and posing around town it’s a great package for under £8,000.
And lastly, the here and now. Honda is at it again, bringing the Beat into the 21st century with its sensational S660, launched in Japan earlier this year.
The result of an in-house competition entered by 400 engineers who submitted plans for new cars to Honda’s bosses, the S660 bears some remeblance to a shrunken 1990s Lotus Elan.
It’s another kei-car, so chucks out only 63bhp, but early test drives reveal that the chassis for this superbly manouevrable little motor could cope with far more power.
At the moment, it’s only available in Japan, but rumours persist of a 1-litre turbocharged engine boasting 125bhp for export. Now that, we’d like to see.
Make it happen Honda.
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