Honda · 1969–1972

Honda 1300

The Honda 1300 is an automobile which was produced by Japanese manufacturer Honda from 1969 to 1972. The largest car manufactured by the company to that point (above the S800 sports car), the front-wheel-drive 1300 was released as a sedan or a coupé, and was intended to compete primarily against other Japanese cars such as the Toyota Corona, Mazda Capella, Mitsubishi Galant, and Nissan Bluebird. An ambitious project spearheaded by Soichiro Honda, it was plagued by engineering delays and sold at a high price compared to its competition. However, lessons learned from it led to the successful debut of the Life kei car in 1971 and Civic subcompact car in 1972, and to the 1300/145's successors, the Accord and Prelude, in 1976 and 1978.

Text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Successor: Honda Accord

All Honda 1300 data: UK builds, safety, recalls, model years →

History

Frequent changes of plan during development, sometimes made on a daily basis, hampered production. Mr. Honda was adamant the engine needed to be air rather than water cooled, arguing that "since water-cooled engines eventually use air to cool the water, we can implement air cooling from the very beginning. That will eliminate the problem of water leaks, and it will facilitate maintenance. The question here is how to reduce the loud noise characteristic of an air-cooled engine to a level commensurate with a water-cooled unit." In May 1969, final specifications and prices for the Japanese market were announced. There were originally two engine versions, the "Series 77" with a single carburetor making 100 PS (74 kW; 99 hp) (SAE), and the "Series 99" with four carburetors at 115 PS (85 kW; 113 hp) (SAE) (detuned to 95 PS (70 kW; 94 hp) and 110 PS (81 kW; 108 hp) in December 1969): the less powerful car was listed with four levels of trim offered (Standard, Custom, S and Deluxe), of which the top three were also available with the four carburetor engine. The manufacturer's ex-works prices ranged from ¥488,000 for the entry level "Series 77" standard saloon to ¥710,000 for the "Series 99" Custom saloon. Automatic transmission and air-conditioning were optional. Six of the seven versions offered were priced noticeably above the slower and less powerful Toyota Corolla Deluxe 4-door sedan, then retailing at ¥520,000: for this price Toyota included delivery to the Tokyo area. The car had been introduced at the Tokyo Motor Show in October 1968, but production only got under way during the early months of 1969. In May 1969 the Honda 1300 went on sale in Japan. It was reported at the time that launch was delayed by a couple of months because company president Soichiro Honda found th

Engine

The engine was SOHC and air-cooled, with a fan attached to the flywheel to pull cool air through the engine block. Honda labeled this Duo Dyna Air Cooling (DDAC). The air that had absorbed heat from the engine block, and additional hot air from around the exhaust manifold, was then used to heat the passenger compartment, a novel approach which was not commonly used afterward. Hideo Sugiura, then the head of the R&D Center, looked back upon the sentiment of the time: "We had a powerful company founder, Mr. Honda, who was on top of the engineering operation. He also had expertise, which he had acquired through a string of enormous successes. Having such a leader, the sentiment in the company was that we had to see it all the way through, regardless of where the road might take us. There was to be no surrender. We could not give up halfway." "Streamlining the bulky construction of the air-cooled engine, and giving it the quietness of a water-cooled engine, will create the ideal power plant...." With that concept in mind, the research engineers worked tirelessly to achieve their ideal. It was from this grueling process of trial and error that the DDAC integrated dual air-cooled engine was achieved. The initial prototype was completed in July 1968, after which dynamic performance testing, temperature measurements and other basic evaluations were conducted. In a departure from the previous Honda practice of using roller bearings on the crankshaft, the 1300 engine had more conventional plain bearings. Two versions of the engine were available. The engine fitted to the 77 sedan and Coupé 7 had a single Keihin carburetor and developed 100 PS (74 kW; 99 hp), while the engine that powered the 99 sedan and Coupé 9 was equipped with four Keihin carburetors and developed 115 PS (85

Running gear

The car employed rack and pinion steering. At the front it had disc brakes, with drum brakes controlled via a dual-line hydraulic system at the rear. Suspension was independent, employing MacPherson struts at the front and an unusual combination of full-width swing axles and half-elliptic leaf springs at the rear. The front suspension was substantially modified after the car's initial presentation: production cars incorporated modified front suspension geometry, a lowered steering ratio and a steering damper, intended to reduce the unusually strong self-centring propensity which was a feature of the pre-production cars originally presented to journalists. The cars as sold also incorporated an updated gear-box and final drive ratios along with re-sized wheels.

Legacy

The experience of developing and producing the 1300 provided the shock needed to change Honda's operating structure. Under the new system, Honda introduced the water-cooled Life and Civic models as its new mini automobile and small passenger cars. The Civic, which was equipped with a CVCC engine in full compliance with the Japanese government's Air Pollution Control Act, drew the world's attention to Honda's engineering approach. Those involved in the 1300 project agreed unanimously: the pain they endured in completing it contributed much to the development of Honda's subsequent successful automobile models.

Honda 145

In October 1972, the 1300 was facelifted again and also rebranded as Honda 145, again offered as a sedan or a coupé. The 145's body was little changed from the 1300, but it was powered by a SOHC water-cooled 1,433 cc EB5 engine with carburetor (80 PS (59 kW; 79 hp)) or fuel injection (90 PS (66 kW; 89 hp), coupé only). The engine is mated to a 4-speed manual transmission and a 2-speed Hondamatic semi-automatic transmission. The car's engine displacement was the inspiration for its name. The market was not impressed by the 145; only 9,736 were produced, and the model was quickly overshadowed by the introduction of Honda's own Civic 4 months earlier. The 145 ended production in October 1974 and the sedan was succeeded by Accord. After the 145, Honda did not produce a coupé again until 1978, when the Prelude was introduced.

Sections adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0); text is shortened. Read the full article for the complete history and citations.

Specifications

name: Honda 1300
Manufacturer: Honda
aka: Honda H1300, Honda 77/99 (sedan, 1969–1972), Honda Coupe7/9 (coupé, 1970–1971), Honda Coupe Golden/Dynamic Series (1971–1972)
Assembly: Suzuka Plant, Suzuka, Mie, Japan
Production: 1969–1972
Class: Compact car
Body style: 2-door coupé (1970–1972), 4-door sedan (1969–1972)
Layout: Front-engine, front-wheel-drive
Engine: 1298 cc H1300E air-cooled I4
Transmission: 4-speed manual, 3-speed automatic
Wheelbase: 2250 mm
Length: 3885 mm (1969–1970 sedan), 4020 mm (1970–1972 sedan), 4140 mm (1970–1971 coupé), 4085-4160 mm (1971–1972 coupé)
Width: 1465 mm (sedan), 1495 mm (coupé)
Height: 1320 mm (coupé), 1345 mm (sedan)
Kerb weight: 860-935 kg (sedan), 870-925 kg (coupé)
Successor: Honda 145

Specification summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Check the linked sources for citations.

More photos

Sources

Wikidata — https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1626471CC0 1.0 · retrieved 2026-10-01
Wikipedia — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_1300CC BY-SA 4.0 · Text © Wikipedia contributors; revision 1369277423 · retrieved 2026-10-01
Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1300_99s.jpgCC BY-SA 3.0 · Photo: Intrac rt si · retrieved 2026-10-01
Car Model Index — https://models.autoculturesociety.com/Compiled record. Sources that do not permit reuse are not copied; this index is credited instead.