The Honda N One RS is the tiny manual hot hatch we crave

By topgear, 14 September 2020
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Every single kei car is cute, but some are lucky enough to hit every branch of the cute tree on their plummet to the streets of Tokyo. Kei cars like the Honda N One.

This is it in mildly updated form, but Honda has sensibly left its adorable face pretty much alone. It’s all typical facelift fare: newly LED head and tail lights, minor tweaks for the grille and bumpers, and… nowt else. We want to cuddle it just as much as we did before.

The biggest news sits betwixt driver and passenger. Go for the top-spec N One RS and you’ll have the option of a six-speed manual gearbox to replace the standard CVT auto.

Being a car that slots into tight kei regulations – governing exterior dimensions not much larger than a roller skate, and engines to 660cc and 63bhp maximums – it’s not going to behave like a shrunken Civic Type R.

But if Honda’s dinky kei roadster – the similarly cuddly S660 – is anything to go by, it’ll be a delightful and engaging manual. Inside a truly delightful little vehicle…