Honda Hondina by Zagato
The Honda Hondina by Zagato was a small open sports-car concept created around Honda kei-car mechanicals.
It evolved from the Fiat-based Zagato Zanzara and was presented at the 1970 Geneva Motor Show after the original design had appeared at the 1969 Turin show.
The first car was called the Zanzara, meaning “mosquito” in Italian. Designed by Ercole Spada, it used Fiat 500 components and featured a sharply creased, wedge-shaped body. Its rear-mounted Fiat engine produced approximately 18 hp, which limited the performance of the lightweight microcar despite its sporty appearance.
Zagato reworked the idea by replacing the Fiat mechanicals with components from the Honda N360. The resulting vehicle was named the Hondina, while some references also identify it as the Hondina Youngstar. It used a Honda 360 cc engine and retained the compact dimensions associated with Japanese kei cars.
The Hondina had an open, roofless body with no conventional doors. Its most distinctive feature included an integrated Targa-style roll bar positioned behind the two seats. The revised layout changed the car’s proportions compared with the rear-engined Zanzara, giving the rear a less bulky appearance.
The Honda engine was mounted at the front and developed approximately 31 hp. This represented a considerable increase over the power of the Fiat-based prototype. Other descriptions identify the engine as a two-cylinder 360 cc unit, while the original development account describes Honda’s high-revving 360 cc DOHC four-cylinder engine.
Zagato hoped Honda would consider the Hondina for limited production as a successor to the S800. At the time, however, Honda was concentrating on practical, high-volume models and on establishing a stronger international presence. The company declined to develop the concept for production, leaving the Hondina as a one-off show car.
The Hondina was among the earliest sporty kei-car concepts to combine very small dimensions with an open body and performance-oriented design. Honda later introduced another compact, open-top kei car, the mid-engined Beat, in 1991. The Beat was developed as a production model with modern engineering, rather than as a direct continuation of the Zagato project, but its character recalled the idea explored by the Hondina.
