The company founder Soichiro Honda was eager to tackle new frontiers and had assembled a team of forward-thinking designers and engineers.

He figured that starting with a sports car would be an excellent way of achieving recognition and that success would flow down to the popular car market where the volume sales would be. He backed this with an ambitious Formula One effort, the first for a Japanese company, and one which proved successful and supported the marketing of the company's road cars.

The astute Mr Honda was vindicated by his ambitious Formula One effort when Honda-powered F1 cars (Williams and McLaren) won the Constructors World Championship six times from 1986 until 1991.

When the two-seater convertible Sports was first shown the 1962 Honda prototype sports car was powered by a little 360cc engine, but soon a 500cc, then later a 600cc and finally 800cc versions were produced.

They were pretty cars with inoffensive styling, which broke no new ground.

The engines were probably the most remarkable parts of these Honda sports cars.

Some of the features were far more akin to a motorcycle engine than a car powerplant.

These tiny, but sturdy twin-cam, four-cylinder engines spun to an amazing 9000rpm.

The larger multi-carburettor units also featured a roller-bearing crankshaft.

Unusually, the final drive was by a chain on all but the later S800s, which changed to a hypoid design.

A hatchback coupe version was added to the range a few years before production finally ceased in 1970.

By then over 25,000 had been made.

The Honda S600 and S800 were marketed widely outside Japan, including in the USA, Australia, England and in parts of Europe.

Milton Ulladulla Vintage and Classic Car Club member Matt Hill owns one of these little Honda sports cars - a 1964 S600.

Matt purchased the car at a Shannons' auction at the Sydney Motor Show in 2004.

He was smitten by its uniqueness and knew it was a rare find.

The engine wasn't running and he guessed it would be quite a journey in order to restore the winning bid to roadworthy fitness - a fact that he soon found to be very true.

As soon as the Honda arrived at Matt's house, his first task was to get the engine running.

"When I finally had it fired up I found it was leaking water, which I then found out that the cylinder head was the culprit," Matt said.

"So I removed the engine and parted the head, taking it to an engine specialist who told me it was beyond repair.

"I then went in search for a replacement and one of the contacts turned out to be a fellow who I was bidding against for the car at the auction.

"The contact said all that he was after were the special high-performance racing carburettors that had been fitted to it.

"I had no idea that they were nonstandard and special."

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Matt said his search for a head took him to a guy who had worked for Honda Australia and was a wealth of knowledge.

"He found me a second-hand head and suggest I buy a full engine kit, in order to fully recondition the engine, reducing the risk of any further problems arising," Matt said.

Matt took the used replacement head to a machine shop who then crack tested it, finding a 'spider's web' of 16 hairline cracks tracking from the spark plug holes across to the valve seats. "Luckily I found an outbound engine specialist who made a first-class repair, skilfully welding and machine it," Matt said.

With the head repaired and the engine dismantled and cleaned it was time for assembly.

Matt said the engine reconditioning kit consisted of 48 rubber 'O' rings, the only gasket was the one mating the head to the engine block.

"I had to cut the remaining gaskets required by hand and the 'O' rings were so close (only millimetres) separating their diameters, to be used on each different fitment retaining surface. Not a job for the faint-hearted," Matt said.

With the Honda now back it one piece, the only thing in the engine area left to do was synchronise the four carburettors.

"Darren at Milton Tyre Service spent almost a full day fine-tuning them for smooth running, maximum performance and economy and thanks to Darren it now runs like a dream," Matt said.

According to Honda, it has a top speed of 140 km/h.

However, Matt says he won't be recording that number on the speedo to check it out.

Honda built 3912 roadsters in 1964, with production climbing to 7,261 convertibles and 1519 coupes in 1965.

Matt reckons his little Honda is rare, interesting, fun and affordable.

"What more could you ask of a classic?"