It's interesting you bring up the issue of VIN and Engine numbers. So I would like to add a bit to the numbering convention Honda used.
There is a Honda 600 Sedan that is scarcer than the Hawaiian Honda 600 and was brought into the USA. In late 1968, 50 Honda 600's were brought into the Gardena California area as test vehicles. Their numbers started with ANXXX-XXX-XXXX and went to 50.
None were supposed to be sold on the market and in fact as the story goes when testing was complete, notes were made as to what had to be changed, the cam box and cam were smashed on every one remaining and all 50 cars were left outside a lot next to the home office test area with the keys in them over night. Several Honda dealers were made aware of this and, if they wanted any the cars they should get them that night. No one knows how many were moved away. I know where two of them are and neither is currently running, but the numbers match these 50 vehicles. The question is were these cars numbered as test vehicles or as part of the standard manufacturing run? This brings up the question on how Honda made and counted all their cars. All the research I have completed indicates the N600 was counted by chassis number from 1000001 to the last car made with a continuous sequential numbering convention. The engines also had a number and the number of engines made for that country was also started with N600E-1000001 and continued. However in a Parts manual printed in England indicates that vehicles started with ANXXX-XXX-XXXX with engine number N600E-1014095. So if your going to count how many AN600 (American N) cars were made you must use the engine number count starting with engine number N600E-1014095 and I have recorded no numbers previous to these numbers. Also, many get confused because the engine numbering convention changed with the introduction of the Full Synchro transmission for the Sedan in April 1971, which starts over with N600E-1500001 and I have recorded very low numbers of these engines with chassis numbers continuing to sequentially run through. Case in point I have recorded chassis #ANXXX-XXX-XXXX with engine N600E-1045989 and then ANXXX-XXX-XXXX with engine N600E-1500175 which has a manufacture date of Apr 1971 for America.
While chassis numbers coming from Denmark which are NXXX-XXX-XXXX, a Sedan sold in Australia has chassis number NXXX-XXX-XXXX, while a Sedan sold in England has NXXX-XXX-XXXX and their dates of manufacture associated all of them with the complete run of Sedans manufactured for all Honda 600's produced.
Another interesting note is that the first 50 were manufactured with drum brakes in front which was found during testing to be inadequate for the car on USA road systems. This is why all AN600's have front disc brakes. ( Yes, I know all the Big Blue Honda 600 shop manuals have the front drum brake system, but they also have the Honda 360 in there too, which did have front drum brakes .). I believe the first Honda 600 sold in the USA market was in Hawaii and has number ANXXX-XXX-XXXX with engine number N600E-1014095 and ran through ANXXX-XXX-XXXX with engine number N600E-1017730. Which totals 3635 Hawaiian Honda 600's if you count only the engine numbers relating to imported Honda 600's. Some of you may say, Bill your wrong, well if so, then why do I have Chassis number NXXX-XXX-XXXX with engine number N600E-1012728 sold in England and Chassis number NXXX-XXX-XXXX with engine number N600E-1012947 sold in Australia.
Now the Coupe was a very different car and Honda's numbering convention for them was different in that; The first Z Coupe I have been able to record was sold in France 12/8/71 with chassis number ZXXX-XXX-XXXX and engine number N600E-2000001.
I know, it has a 20 for the first two numbers and this was because the numbering convention for the Constant transmission is 10 for the N600 and 20 for the Z600. Yes, I know the engine numbers for a Coupe are supposed to start with 25, well I have a copy of the original sales certificate and it says it was a Prototype for the France Car show and it says the engine number is 2000001. My guess is that Honda put it together for the show circuit and it was built before the full synchro transmissions were available. All Z600's sold in the USA had Full Synchro transmissions their numbering convention was 25 as were the Sedan's in April 1971 with a 15 the "5" in the number identifying it as a Full Synchro transmission. The difference between the Sedan and the Coupe is that the Z600 started with chassis numbers from ZXXX-XXX-XXXX for the USA vehicle run, however again the engines were manufactured for the country they were imported to. So far I have recorded the earliest AZXXX-XXX-XXXX with engine N600E-2500104 manufactured in April 1971 and the latest being AZXXX-XXX-XXXX with engine number N600E-2516042 which was manufactured in Aug 1972. Giving us a total of 15973 Honda 600 Coupe engines built for export to the USA, if we subtract the chassis number of 36 from the engine number of 104 which gives us 69 engines built before the first engine was built for export to the USA. Then subtract that these 69 engines from the 16042 giving us a total of 15973 engines manufactured for export to the USA. This figure is most likely higher by a hundred or so cars as I have yet to find a document stating the chassis and engine number of the last Honda 600 Coupe or Sedan built for the USA. But we do know the last Honda Coupe and Sedan was built in Aug 1972 and most likely sold in 1973.
This does not include the AA600 which has it's engine numbers starting with N600E-5000001. But that's another story.
Also, I am open to receiving all Honda 600 chassis, engine and date of manufacture numbers.
Bill Colford
> -----Original Message-----
> From:
> Tamara Humes and Larry
> Cooley [mailto:tambrat2@...]
> Sent:
> Saturday, January 22,
> 2005 9:56 PM
> To:
> 2cylinderhondas@yahoogroups.com
> Subject:
> Re: [2cylinderhondas] $10,000 Sedan on eBay
> I've already
> asked him to post the VIN for year ID ... I also asked for pix of the engine > compartment!! In case it's Hawaiian!
> Larry Cooley
> mterrens@...
> wrote:
> > Hi Guys,
> > I had a look at this car on Ebay and was
> > interested to note
> > the sellers only feedback is a negative, not a good
> > start to
> > someone trying to sell something at the premium end of Ebay
> > pricing. Also, I would think more photos and information > > should have > > been supplied for this price point.
> > Michael (Australia) Multi S600
> > owner and soon to be N360
> > owner.