Honda · 1967–1972

Honda N360

The Honda N360 is a small car manufactured and marketed by Honda from March 1967 to 1972. Built as both a two-door sedan and three-door wagon, the N360 has a front-engine, front-wheel-drive layout and seats four passengers. After a January 1970 facelift, the N360 became the NIII 360 and continued in production until June 1972. A larger-engined variant, the N600, was marketed through 1973. All models used a straight forward two-box design that complied with kei car dimensional regulations — though vehicles with the 401 cc and 598 cc engines exceeded the kei engine displacement limits and were largely intended for markets outside Japan. The N360 featured front-wheel drive and an air-cooled, four-stroke, 354 cc, 31 PS (23 kW; 31 hp) two-cylinder engine. While ultimately derived from Honda's motorcycle engines, the N360E engine has a 360-degree crankshaft angle ("parallel twin") unlike the 180-degree "vertical twin" setup typically used on Honda's two-cylinder motorcycle engines. This same engine was used in the Honda Vamos, where it was coupled with a beam axle/leaf spring rear suspension. The simple N360 name, along with its variants, used the "N" prefix, which stood for norimono and translated from Japanese to English as vehicle (or car) — distinguishing the cars from the company's motorcycle offerings. In 2012, Honda introduced the Honda N-One, an homage inspired by the 1967–1973 N sedans and continuing the name.

Text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Successor: Honda Life

All Honda N360 data: UK builds, safety, recalls, model years → + Compare

Versions

Honda marketed the N360 as a two-door sedan, with a three-door wagon (considered a commercial vehicle in Japan, and therefore called a "Light van") called the LN360 arriving in June of the first year. It has a horizontally divided rear gate and boxier rear bodywork for maximum load capacity. The LN360 had the same 31 PS engine as the sedan, and a top speed of 105 km/h (65 mph). After a January 1970 facelift it became the LNIII 360, with a new non-reflective dash, bigger turn signals, and the same new front end as the sedan. The LNIII 360 was built until late 1971, when the Life Van took over. The N360 was an all new, clean-sheet product, and did not share its chassis with the Honda Sports roadster, or the Honda L700 commercial platform. The N360 was a new market segment for Honda, providing an affordable, reliable, and easy-to-maintain vehicle that had broad market appeal to private car ownership. The roadsters and trucks built up to then had specific, targeted appeal. The engine's technological specifications reflected engineering efforts resulting from the development of the larger Honda 1300, which used an air-cooled 1.3-litre engine. One of the primary differences between the N360 and the Honda Life that followed was the N360/600 had an air-cooled engine, and the Life had a water-cooled engine. The water-cooled engine was better able to comply with newly enacted emission standards in Japan, and reflected an industry wide move away from air-cooled as well as two-stroke engines. As does the original Mini, but unlike the succeeding Life, the N360/600 had its gearbox mounted in the sump rather than bolted on as a separate unit. The N360E engine was unusual in several ways: its two cylinders sat rather far apart, with the cam chain running between them. Unlike most air-c

N600

The larger-engined N600 was developed alongside the N360 in order to target export markets like the US and Europe, where motorways demanded higher top speeds. It was also briefly sold in the domestic Japanese market, however, where it went on sale in July 1968 as the N600E. Only 1,500 examples were sold until early 1969 when the N600 was discontinued in Japan; because of its larger engine it did not qualify for any of the tax and insurance breaks given to kei cars even though it was as small as one. The larger engine meant that the spare tire had to be moved from its usual position in the engine room to being underslung at the rear of the car. Just seven months after road testing the N360, Britain's Motor magazine tested a Honda N600 in November 1968. They reported that it had a top speed of 77.1 mph (124.1 km/h) and could accelerate from 0-60 mph (97 km/h) in 19 seconds. An overall fuel consumption of 36.3 mpg‑imp (7.8 L/100 km; 30.2 mpg‑US) was achieved. The test car was priced in the UK at £589 including taxes, at a time when the Mini 850 was retailing for £561. The testers were impressed to find 1100 cc performance from a 600 cc car, but found it 'very noisy when extended'. They found the Honda as easy to drive and park, and 'quite well equipped'. The performance figures put the car at or near the top of its class under most criteria, reflecting its favourable power-to-weight ratio. The car was thus 5 mph (8 km/h) faster than the 72 mph (116 km/h) achieved by rival magazine Autocar in an N360 in May 1968, and more than ten seconds quicker to 0–60 mph (97 km/h) which the N360 achieved in 29.3 seconds. Consistent with its slower performance, the N360 squeezed 3 extra miles out of a (UK) gallon of fuel, managing an overall 39.4 mpg‑imp (7.17 L/100 km; 32.8 mpg‑US). Th

Legacy

Honda has paid tribute to the N360 with a number of modern vehicles, including: Honda EV-N concept, shown at Tokyo Motor Show 2009 Honda N-One, introduced in 2012 as a modern kei-car homage to the N360

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 N360/N600

aka

Honda LN360, Honda NIII360, Honda N400, Honda LN400, Honda N600 Fu Gui (ROC), Honda Scamp

Assembly

Suzuka Plant, Suzuka, Mie, Japan, Johor Bahru, Malaysia (Capital Motor), Taipei, Taiwan (Sanyang)

Production

1967–1972

Successor

Honda Life (N360), Honda Civic (N600)

Related

Honda Life, Honda TN360, Honda Vamos, Honda Z360/Z600

Manufacturer

Honda

Layout

FF layout

Class

Kei car/city car

Engine

354 cc N360E air-cooled I2, 402 cc N400E air-cooled I2, 598 cc N600E air-cooled I2

Body style

2-door sedan, 3-door wagon ("Van")

Transmission

Four-speed manual constant mesh, dog-clutch engagement, three-speed automatic

Wheelbase

2000 mm

Length

2995 mm

Width

51 in

Height

53 in

Kerb weight

1119 lb

sp

uk

Specification summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Measured facts from Wikidata (CC0). Check the linked sources for citations.

More photos

Sources

• Wikidata — https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q655402CC0 1.0 · retrieved 2026-10-01
• Wikipedia — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_N360CC BY-SA 4.0 · Text © Wikipedia contributors; revision 1372380619 · retrieved 2026-10-01
• Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1969_Honda_N360_01.jpgCC BY-SA 3.0 · Photo: Mytho88 · 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.

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