Honda has always been rather good at delivering well-packaged little cars to the masses. Think back to the original Honda Civic. It measured just 139.8 inches in length and 59.3 inches in width, and yet it would comfortably seat four adults. It soon became something of a sales sensation, launching a 54-year-and-counting career as one of the world's most admired commuter cars, selling alongside other pint-sized marvels like the old-school CR-X and the much-missed Fit.
Well, in comparison to the Honda T360 — a dinky little pickup from the early 1960s — these cars are gargantuan. Honda was also developing plans for its sporty little S500, but questions were raised about just how much market appeal a fizzy two-seater would have.
The decision was made to broaden Honda's reach by debuting a small pickup truck, and it would use a version of the same engine as the S500, albeit in smaller form. That form was a 360-cc engine, a figure that might suggest a single- or twin-cylinder mill to the uninitiated, but no, this was a 0.36-liter inline-four. We're quite sure that's the smallest inline-four engine ever fitted to a production truck, but if you think you know of something that'll beat it, let us know.
A closer look at the T360 and its small-but-mighty inline-four
The T360 was Honda's first foray into the world of production cars, debuting just a few months prior to the S500 sports car, which itself was developed from an earlier Sports 360 prototype. So, when it came to methods of motivation, Honda relied on its wealth of knowledge in the motorcycle industry, which is immediately apparent when reviewing the T360's specifications.
It boasted a double overhead-cam design, that laughably small 360-cc displacement, four carburetors, and the ability to rev well past 8,000 rpm. In fact, the rare engine with a peculiarly high redline, officially known as the AK250E, delivered peak power at 8,500 rpm, in the form of just 30 horses. Peak torque kicked in at 6,000 rpm, and the truck's top speed was a mere 60 mph.
Over the years, the T360's line would evolve, perhaps most strangely into the Honda Vamos, which is quite possibly the weirdest car Honda has ever made. There were also "crawler" versions, which had skis up front and tracks at the back.