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MCALEER: Plenty of value in thinking small

Several weeks ago, I was able to find and drive an Autozam AZ-1. What's that? It's a tiny 660cc Japanese kei car from Mazda (actually built by Suzuki), which comes with gull-wing doors and mid-engined layout and turbocharging.
Autozam
A classic red Mazda Autozam AZ-1: the mid-engined two-seat sports coupé kei car was designed and manufactured by Suzuki but sold by Mazda. It debuted in October 1992 and ceased production in 1994. photo supplied

Several weeks ago, I was able to find and drive an Autozam AZ-1. What's that? It's a tiny 660cc Japanese kei car from Mazda (actually built by Suzuki), which comes with gull-wing doors and mid-engined layout and turbocharging. It's the world's tiniest exotic, and it was absolutely wonderful.

I've a great fondness for automotive oddballs, and when you're talking about the Japanese kei-car market, there are few bouncy-balls more odd nor smaller. While many of the little cars that adhere to the rules of Japanese tax law on footprint and horsepower output are boxy and boring, the JDM market is simply filled with stuff that's bonkers.

The Nissan Figaro. The Nissan Pao. The Honda Beat. The Suzuki Cappucino.

Move up a level and there's stuff like the Nissan S-Cargo and Subaru Sambar wagons, the latter converted to look like VW Microbuses.Wonderful stuff, and unlike anything you'll find here. In Canada, our econoboxes are mostly devoid of humour, built to a price point rather than infused with quirkiness. Two bright spots are the Nissan Micra, which is dirt cheap but has its own racing series, and the Mazda2, which drives with far more zip than you'd expect from such a lightly powered car.

Fair enough, I suppose, but just look at what Honda recently launched in Japan: the S660 Roadster.

A descendant of the convertible Beat, the car is already completely sold out, and it's not hard to see why.

The S660 qualifies as a kei car due to its small stature and displacement.

This makes it cheap to insure, and with owning an older vehicle in Japan subject to fairly punitive taxation laws, sometimes the newer kei car makes for a great youth buy.

But that's not who's buying the scrappy little S660. Honda reports that of the 8,600 cars they've sold so far this year, 80 per cent have gone to buyers over the age of 40. Granted, Japan's aging population and crowded cities likely skew the statistics somewhat, but the S660 is a second car for most people, and it's good cheap fun. Here are the specs: a 660cc turbocharged engine makes 63 horsepower at 6000rpm and 77 foot-pounds at 2500rpm. The car is just under three and a half metres long, and weighs just 850 kilograms or so.

Add in a centre-exit exhaust, Audi R8-style rear clamshell styling, an extra-small wheel and a brake-based traction control up front that brakes the inside wheel to haul the car deeper into the turn (you find similar systems on the current Subaru WRX and Volkswagen GTI), and you've got the makings of a pea-shooter hot-rod. Drop the canvas top and it's like a mid-engined Miata, although small enough to make the Mazda look like a Mustang.

Just 63 h.p. though, isn't going to translate, not in a world where even your feeblest rental pony car comes with 300 h.p. However, Honda's always done well with modest outputs, and they do have the option of a more-powerful export model. There already exists a 1.0L three-cylinder turbocharged engine making 127 h.p. and 147 ft/lb of torque.

Now that last sounds pretty interesting. If the curb weight can be kept close to the original, that'd give the theoretical S1000 a curb weight better than a Mini Cooper S, and only a hair off a four-door GTI, both considered to be no slouches in the fun department. With 16" performance tires and a mid-engined layout, the S1000 should be able to run rings around both larger hot hatches in the handling department, and it'd do so for a fraction of the fuel cost.

However, that's not where the meat of the market is going. Turbocharging has already gone thoroughly mainstream, now available in everything from the thrifty EcoBoost Fiesta to the family-hauling Kia Sedona, but that doesn't mean more sports cars are on the way. As an image car for Honda in Japan, the S660 is doing the trick, supplying some of that small-car fun the company was once so well-known for. If you're looking for a second car in Canada, however, you're spoiled for choice, not only is the classic market stronger than ever if you're searching for the dream car of your teen years, but the number of fun-to-drive cars on the road is hugely varied. Whether it's the new Mustang or upcoming Camaro for pony car thrills, the new MX-5 Miata for top down fun, or stuff like the GTI and the WRX for the practical mom or dad, we've plenty to choose from.

Not only that, but the swelling in dimensions that's accompanied almost any major model over the years, from 3-series BMW to Honda Accord, hasn't really come at a cost in either fuel-economy or price tag. Handling? Sprightliness?

Yes, cars are a lot faster than they used to be, but it's harder to find nimble fun in the non-performance trims.

Still, there is hope for the small, fun car, even as the subcompact market constricts and the average crossover starts looking like a detached bungalow on 19" alloys. Canada still gets the small, cheap runabout, and while we're not ready for kei cars just yet, it's not hard to find a curb weight under 1000 kg. Better yet is the (hopefully) trend set by Mazda with their new MX-5. Not only is the new Miata being shorter than the original car a huge accomplishment, but the weight of the lighter versions is within 10 kg of the original. We are often told that the pressures of demand for more cargo space, increased comfort, on-board technology, and crash-testing standards all conspire to add weight and size to our cars. But here's Mazda putting out a machine that ticks all the modern requirements and is the weight of a couple of Stephen King novels more than the original lightweight roadster. For now, the really small car still feels like a foreign concept, suitable only for niche sports cars with limited sales. Still, as our roads get ever more crowded, and limited parking starts becoming an added pressure, could we not see the value in thinking small?