Mid-engined, turbocharged, all-wheel drive. It sounds like the starting point for an ultra-modern high-performance car, but there are remarkably few production models that have used this exact configuration. There’s the Bugatti Veyron and Chiron, a few hybrids like the BMW i8, Ferrari SF90 and Corvette ZR1X, and a smattering of ’80s Group B rally homologation specials.
And then there’s this, the Honda Z. And as the tired old internet meme/children’s song goes, one of these things is not like the others. Launched in 1998, the Z revived a name from the 1970s, but while the original Z – one of Honda’s first cars and effectively a sportier ‘coupe’ version of the N360 hatch – was quite a conventional car, the modern Z… wasn’t.
Honda Z – rear
Built to Japan’s kei car rules, responsible for some truly brilliant small car designs, it looked on the surface like quite a conventional micro-SUV, but underneath, it was anything but. For one, its 656cc three-cylinder engine was available with a turbocharger, which was very much not the norm for Honda at the time.
Thus equipped, the engine, officially called the E07Z but known in marketing material by the much cooler title of Hyper 12-Valve Intercooled Turbo Engine, produced a meagre 63bhp, the maximum allowed by kei car rules. All-wheel drive was standard across the range, too.
Honda Z – cutaway diagram
Where things started to get really odd, though, was where that engine lived. Despite the Z having a normal silhouette suggestive of a front-mounted engine, the powerplant was actually tucked away beneath the rear seats and ahead of the rear axle, in a layout Honda called UM-4 – ‘Under Midship 4WD’.
This wasn’t just complication for complication’s sake. Mounting the engine there freed up cabin space and allowed for a flat floor, which Honda said gave the Z interior space on a par with cars from a size class or two up. There were stated safety benefits too, since there was less stuff to be smushed towards the cabin in the event of a front-end impact.
It also sounded as if Honda wanted the Z Turbo to have some genuine enthusiast appeal. Other than the obvious benefits of the layout, which included a stated 50:50 weight distribution, it had all-round disc brakes, five-link rear suspension and even a helical rear limited-slip diff. That was largely undone by the fact it only came with a four-speed automatic, but hey, they tried.
That would be just about all there was to say about the Z, but we can’t go without at least a passing mention of the TV ads Honda ran for it in Japan. To promote it, the company recruited hirsute Texan axe shredders ZZ Top, who even performed a dedicated song about the little Z as it hurtled through the desert. It’s exactly as bizarre as it sounds, but then the Z is a bizarre – but fascinating – little car.
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