Pocket sportster time capsule

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What if you bought a brand new sports car, maintained it well, kept all the invoices and manuals, drove it for 15 years, enjoying its cool styling and state-of-the-art technology to the fullest, and then put it away in storage for the next couple of decades? Would still it be the talk of the town in, say, another 40 years?

The owner of this lovely little Honda S800 Coupé did just that. He purchased the high-revving Japanese pocket sportster new in 1967, from Honda dealer Japauto at 43 avenue de la Grande Armée in Paris, but then barely ever drove it. It spent most of its time in storage at the family château in Sologne and made its final journey in 1982 having covered just over 44,000 kilometres (27,340 miles). He parked it in the corner of his garage, placed a woollen blanket in a matching colour over its fastback roof and just left it there.

Fast-forward to 2023, and a chance meeting between the original owner's son and Christoph Grohe led to the uncovering of the car, and now it's looking for a new owner to dust it down after 40 years and put it back on the road. We love everything about it, all the way up to its yellow light bulbs and Bibendum key fob. Yes, it would be necessary to inspect this car on a lift to see what the last four decades have done to the body and chassis, but it has to be said that this little ice blue coupé seems to have stood the test of time rather well, especially since the engine still turns freely. The chances of finding another one-owner car in a similar condition will be fairly small, we’d think.

Now, back to our initial question. What would a one-owner Honda S2000 of 2008-vintage do in 2064? Would it even survive a similar time capsule?

Words by Jeroen Booij
 

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