1972 Honda Z600 And 1981 Fiat X1/9 Barn Finds
It doesn’t take a huge barn, storage space, or garage to hide a ten-foot-long car which is how some of us “collectors” (or, hoarders) get overwhelmed with having too many vehicles squirreled away. This 1972 Honda Z600 has been stored for years and the seller has it posted here on craigslist just south of Hillsboro, Oregon. They’re asking $3,500. Here is the original listing.
I need to mention that the seller also has a 1981 Fiat X1/9 listed in the same craigslist ad and it’s similarly dusty and has been stored for a similar unknown number of years. They’re asking $1,500 for the Fiat X1/9 which would be a very cool car to own. I don’t know for sure, but I’m betting that if a buyer showed up with a handful of $100 bills, they’d be willing to deal on a 2-for-1 purchase.
The Honda Z600 would be my choice if I had to choose between these two cars, although my first choice would be a Honda N600, a less “sporty” design that was made in the same era. The Z600 was made beginning in the fall of 1970 and only lasted until 1974 globally. They were sold in the United States until the end of 1972, although a few may have trickled out in early-1973. Honda’s new Civic, a much more civilized and user-friendly “normal” car was available in 1973 so the old air-cooled Honda cars went away for the most part.
The Z600 came in yellow, blue, green as seen here and the most common color seems to be orange. Most of the Z600s that I have seen have been orange. I’m not a fan of the black swoopy-woopy stripe on this car but this car will most likely be repainted anyway. It looks surprisingly good for a car that’s been hidden away in a dusty building for who knows how long. I might get everything working like new, redo the interior and try to clean up the exterior for now if it were my project car.
A person could pay for this car in a week (or, maybe a day? An hour?) if they had a YouTube channel showing forgotten, dusty cars being cleaned and detailed. Other than a cracked windshield, a crack in the steering wheel, and loads of junk and general dirt and debris inside, this car looks like it would clean up nicely. The seats need some help but the back seat looks good as does the rear cargo area, despite being filled with stuff and about as dirty as it gets.
The dirty engine is Honda’s 598 cc air-cooled twin-cylinder – basically, a Honda motorcycle engine – that was rated at 36 horsepower. This one isn’t running, of course, and the seller doesn’t say if it turns over but I’m guessing that it does. Hagerty is at $10,800 for a #3 good condition car so there’s some room here for the next owner to get it moving again. Have any of you owned a Honda Z600 or a Fiat X1/9? Or, both?
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Comments
Could you fit in either one?
Buy both…one for each foot.
I see a Capri !
And a Citroen next to it
Interesting garage. I see both the Capri and the Citroen, but what is the maroon car next to the Honda ant the car missing the taillight next to the Fiat? Both look European.
big plastic bumpers, so at least a 74?
I’ve owned both!
I had the use of one of these for about a month and enjoyed driving it. (I worked at Pontiac/Honda store and it was traded in on a Civic)
The shifter (hinged at the bottom of the dash) is a real trip. (should have a Mopar pistol grip)
Grab knob with thumb and forefinger and grab lever with the balance of your hand. From neutral swing lever up to the stop, rotate lever to the left (counter clockwise) to the stop and release clutch. For second, rotate lever back to center and swing lever down to and again rotate the lever to the left. For third rotate lever back to the center position and swing lever up to the stop and rotate to the right. And by now you have figured out where 4th gear is. (I do not remember where reverse was, I think it was swing way down and rotate almost 150 degrees counterclockwise. You had to practice a few times before going out in traffic. If I remember correctly it would buzz along at 65 MPH. And I thought a Citroen 2CV shifter was goofy!
A friend of mine had a Z600 in the early 80’s. He’s 6’4″ and I am 6’2″, we fit in the car fairly well except for being shoulder to shoulder and shoulder to door! Ho sold the car after a couple of years to a man that worked with my father and when he died it passed to his daughter. I don’t really have a use for it but might buy it anyway. It can keep my Spitfire company.
I had both a Z600 and a N600 got both
For free. Both had blown engines rebuilt
both to Japanese spec. all parts could be
Ordered back then gave an extra 10 hp.
Also converted to electric fan for cooling
Made for better driving. The engines where never used in motorcycles.
Bill
In 1971, I purchased a yellow Z600, and let the good times roll. The Z was amazingly fun to drive. Nimble, great on twisty roads, and a joy to drive on the highway. I drove it to the Mardi Gras and then to Manhattan. All good. Three friends were so impressed, that they all bought them for themselves. One was blue, another orange and the third was this olive drab they called green. At this price, it would be difficult to go wrong.
wk day and wk end?
I’m w/Scotty – small is good~
Speaking of YouTube and hoarders with tiny cars; check out 2stroketurbo
If you’re into cars like this or just cars in general, it’s a great channel. Normal guy with a repair shop, no histrionics.
i would just patch up the paint. and it looks like someone was trying to take the side strip off and did not finch it. i would take it off and buff paint fix what needs to run and seat and just drive it. i would bet it would look like a 8 car after doing just that. but ad is gone so i take it cars have been sold.
The green Honda is sooo cool. I’d love to have the finances to redo that great little car. I’m not a big guy so it would be a neat little gem to drive to work.
I had a friend who owned one of these in the 70s. He took me for a ride on the 5 freeway in LA and scared the living daylights out of me. When a semi would pass him, it was all he could do to keep the car on the road.
Thanks, but no thanks!
The rear window looks like a Tupperware lid. Press the center to release the air and you are all set!
So you have to burp the Honda?
This is a car from a time when it wasn’t a time for the car. It is a kei car, designed to regulations that allowed a car to be kept in Toyko. As a result, the car didn’t have much in the way of top speed. It would go faster than road and traffic conditions would allow in its natural environment.
I remember seeing the N and the Z at the Chicago Auto Show in 1971 (I think) and thinking about how cool it would be to own one. Sure, if you didn’t have to go on a freeway. I can’t imagine what it would be like to drive on I-80 in northwest Indiana. It would possibly be able to go faster drafting a bevy of semis than out in the open air.
Of course, there’s a good chance of becoming roadkill. On the other hand, I remember Beetles not being able to top 65 mph, and a Citroen 2CV would only go flat out at 60 mph, assuming no uphill and/or headwinds.
I did have the opportunity to drive an N600 much later, and yeah, the Fiat 850 Spider I owned was a much better car, with a real heater, a nifty convertible top, great snow traction, and even if it wasn’t the quickest car it would eventually top out at 95 mph.
Would I own a Z600 today? Sure, I don’t know for how long, for a couple of years, sure. It’d be a hoot.
Cars sitting in the barn:
the purple next to the honda is a Mercedes 220 ponton from the fifties
next to the Fiat X 1/9 is most likely a Austin Healey Sprite MK2 and the next one a Triumph Spitfire Mk3 or earlier
Yes even in Austria we follow these barnfinds!
Mike H, maroon car seems to be a Mercedes E-Klass “ponton” ca. 54 or so. Missing tailight car at 1st looks like an MG-B but the front fenders don’t fit. So other guess at the moment. Maybe italian car ?
The “windshield only” car besides of it may be some kind of Triumph (TR 4, 5, 6 or Spitfire) ?
Missing wheels car is a Jaguar XJ6, right ?
And Citroen a DS or ID.
JYC,
Pretty good choices, but the car with no engine cover next to the Fiat is a MG “A”. The next car is a Spitfire.
In ’79 and ’80 I was working in Santa Clara at FMC, home of the M113 Armored Personel Carrier, the USMC P7 and the M3 Bradley Fighting Vehicle. My buddy there, Pete, had a Z600. There was a month or so where we commuted over the mountains via Highway 17 to Santa Cruz in the Honda everyday. Don’t laugh…..we were that orange bomb passing you on the way downhill….and holding our own on the way up, thanks to two guys who knew where the meager power lived: 5000 RPM and up!
Dead right! The Z’s loved to run at and above the redline.
I bought a 1971 Honda 600 in 1979 Los Angeles. Drove it on all the freeways and it was no problem. Plenty of room inside and never felt afraid. Also never got better than 40 miles per gallon. The trouble started when I decided to drive it from LA to Northern Ohio over the Christmas holiday. Everything was fine until the points broke in the middle of the night in Texarkana. My girlfriend and I spent the night in the reclining seats by the side of the interstate. Every semi that passed by shook the car quite a bit. But what are you going to do? No cell phones in 1979. Hitched a ride with a tow truck driver the next morning to the nearest Honda dealer. One of the valves was burnt badly. So badly R Top Speed was 35 mph. Drove it like that all the way to Toledo from Texarkana! So cold I thought I was going to die. The heater did nothing. In Toledo a Honda Pontiac dealer purchased the car from me for $400 and it sat there on display for decades.