Keep your supercars; driving thrills don't come much purer than this 👇
– which was cruelly revealed to us after being canned – only with the complex four-cylinder hybrid powertrain from the Le Mans car ditched in favour of an all-electric powertrain. Face-melting acceleration is all but guaranteed and, should Porsche choose to actually build the thing, it won't come as a huge surprise if Porsche retakes the production car lap record around the Nordschleife with it. Not least because it's specifically targeting it.
What isn’t a dead cert, however, is if it’ll rewarding to drive. Of course, if anyone can make an electric car fun to drive, it’s Porsche. But my experience of driving ultra-powerful EVs is that once the initial excitement and/or shock of having your organs rearranged the moment you stamp on the right pedal, the novelty wears off after just a handful of traffic light drags.
Good job it’s a featherweight, mind, because there’s precious little grunt to move it along. Being a Kei car, the Beat produces just 64hp from a 656cc three-cylinder engine. Unlike other Kei car heroes such as the Suzuki Cappuccino and Autozam AZ-1, there’s no turbo assistance here. So in true Honda style, you won’t unlock the full amount of poke until you hit 8,100rpm, just 400rpm shy of the redline. Gutless? Sure.
Worried that a Kei car won’t have the same kerb appeal as a car at the complete opposite end of the performance and price spectrum? Don’t be, because the plucky Beat will turn just as many heads as a Bugatti Chiron. Possibly. Honda built tens of thousands of Beats, but they were never officially sold in the UK and few have brought them over here privately – probably down the hefty import fees for a car worth little more than a pack of Sun Maid raisins in its home market.
You also won’t have to handle the very recent, and presumably very costly, engine replacement that occurred due to light damage sustained after a timing belt failure. The current engine has around 37,000 miles on the clock, though the original motor is included in the sale just in case you fancy having a stab at fixing it yourself. You know, for ‘matching numbers’ and all that.
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