Which sports car was Honda's first passenger automobile?

The Honda S500 was Honda’s first passenger automobile. Released in 1963, it followed the T360 pickup into production by four months and established Honda’s early sports-car identity.

The S500 was a two-door roadster powered by a 531 cc DOHC four-cylinder engine. Its high-revving design drew on Honda’s motorcycle expertise, while its chain-driven rear wheels were an unusual feature for a car and highlighted the company’s two-wheeled origins.

Honda built 1,363 S500s between 1963 and 1964. The model was related to the T500 and developed from the smaller S360 prototype, which had been shown in 1962 but never entered production. The S500 was therefore both a production milestone and the beginning of Honda’s S-series sports cars.

The T360 remains Honda’s first production automobile overall, because it was a truck. The S500 is specifically the first passenger automobile, a distinction that separates it from the T360 and later S600 and S800.