Essay • Honda Beat • 656cc
What 63 HorsepowerTaught Me
The smallest engine I own has done the most teaching. Most of the lessons were about me, not the car.
The premise
Less Is the Whole Point
My Honda Beat makes 63 horsepower. That's from a 656cc three-cylinder, mounted in the middle of a car that weighs about 1,680 pounds. My Lexus has more horsepower in its air conditioning compressor's dreams. My Fiat makes more than two and a half times as much, and it's bone stock.
And yet, the Beat is the car that taught me how to drive.
Not how to go fast. Anybody can go fast. You buy horsepower, you push the pedal down, and a machine does the work while you take credit. The Beat doesn't let you take credit for anything. Every mile per hour is earned, and when you get one, you keep it, because you don't know when you'll see another one.
Lesson one
Momentum Is Money
In a slow car, speed is a savings account. You build it slowly, and the only way to lose it is to spend it on the brakes. So you stop spending.
You look further down the road. You lift early instead of braking late. You pick a line through a corner that keeps the car moving, because if you scrub off 10 mph in a Beat, getting it back takes the rest of the afternoon.
Fast cars let you be lazy. You blow a corner, you stand on the gas, and the engine bails you out. The Beat has no bailout. It has three cylinders, individual throttle bodies and a deep sense of disappointment in you.
That's a better driving instructor than any track day.
Lesson two
Use All of It
Honda's MTREC system gives each cylinder its own throttle, and the Beat makes its peak power at 8,100 rpm. You don't visit that part of the tach. You live there.
In most cars, full throttle is a rumor. In the Beat, it's a lifestyle. You're flat on the on-ramp. You're flat up the hill. You're flat in fifth at 70 mph wondering if the car behind you understands what's happening.
There's something honest about using 100% of a machine. Nothing is held in reserve. No mystery power you're scared to find. Just you and every single horse, working together, mostly screaming.
Lesson three
Interesting Beats Fast
I've parked the Beat at car shows next to cars worth more than my house. At Cruisin' on Main, I parked it next to an actual go-kart, which honestly felt like a family reunion. At the Vigilante 77 Send-Off, it shared a parking lot with a pile of 911s.
Guess which car people walked over to.
People don't crowd around horsepower. Horsepower is a number on a spec sheet, and everybody's seen big numbers. People crowd around stories. A mid-engine Japanese kei car with a design that started at Pininfarina and was the last car Soichiro Honda approved before he died in 1991 is a story. A tiny yellow convertible that looks like a Ferrari that went through the dryer is a story.
That's basically the whole philosophy of this blog. Interesting doesn't mean expensive, powerful or fast.
Lesson four
Slow Is Fun at Any Speed
The best part of a slow car is that it's fun at legal speeds.
My favorite road for it is Bridger Canyon, right out of Bozeman. Two lanes, a creek and a curve every few hundred yards, and the Beat is busy in every one of them at the speed limit.
A 500-horsepower car is bored until you're doing something that gets you arrested. The Beat is having the time of its life at 45 mph. Every gear change matters. Every corner is an event. You get the whole experience, revving it out, carrying speed, feeling the car move around, without risking your license.
It's the difference between watching a movie and being in it.
Lesson five
It Started in a Video Game
I blame Gran Turismo 2 for this. In 1999, I saw a 63-horsepower Honda Beat on the used car lot for 7,079 credits and wanted it more than the race cars. Decades later, there's a real one in my garage.
The game got one thing exactly right: the Beat isn't fast. It just feels fast, all the time, at every speed, and you're grinning the whole way.
The short version
What It Taught Me
Look further ahead. In a slow car, and in most things.
Don’t waste what you’ve built. Momentum is hard to get back.
Use all of it. There’s no point saving horsepower for later.
Interesting wins. Nobody remembers the fastest car in the lot.
Smiling is a performance metric. The Beat scores higher than anything I own.
The verdict
Buy Something Slow
I'm not saying horsepower is bad. My Land Cruiser has a turbo on it for a reason (it's all on the build page), and I'd never say no to more. But if you want to learn to drive, buy something slow and drive it like you stole it.
Got a Slow Car Story?
Tell me about the slowest car you ever loved. Bonus points if it's yellow.
Never Lift.
Drive Fast · Take Chances · Never Lift
