The Z stands for ZZZzzzzzZZZZzzzz.....
The Honda Z Act is a sleeper, but not in the good way...
And they're off!!!! ...we think... ...are they? It's hard to tell...
Trying to slipstream Obelisk, at just over 20km/h (12mph)... 
Kei cars were designed to be small and affordable, making car ownership a reality for many, mostly in Japan. The most of them are gutless city runabouts, but there were some pretty cool ones, like the Suzuki Cappuchino, Mazda Autozam and, more recently, the Honda S660. The Honda Z is a Kei car, but sporty it is not. Featuring an air cooled SOHC 350cc 2 cylinder engine producing a heart thumping- Wait for it-
37bhp, it was obviously never designed for racing.
Or climbing hills for that matter!
We took the Z to Matterhorn short, where the extent of it's gutless-ness became quite clear...
We couldn't even get out of the pit lane for the practise! And when the race started, everyone got stuck on the main straight's incline, leading everyone to slowly and agonisingly grind to a halt and start rolling back, very slowly.... But Vic had the right idea. By swinging from side to side, he could gain momentum then use it to propel himself, bit by bit up the hill, until he reached the other side!
I eventually caught on, and did a similar thing, although instead of swerving, I'd do a complete circle then launch myself upward, then do another circle, and so on and so forth.
*All cars in this shot have ground to a complete halt, except Vic who's beginning his momentum-swinging thing.*
Vic whizzes past Ash, who's still struggling up the hill...
...so I give him a speed-providing shunt!
The race at High Speed Ring was quite fun!
...
Stop laughing!
In truth, it was actually a pretty good track for the Z. Long, wide and flowing, there was nearly no need for braking, and the race was actually super close. Positions would be gained through holding the perfect racing line, and some ballsy dives. On the S bend section, I pulled an almost-kamikaze manouvere, not braking at all and overtaking everyone around the outside. As mentioned by Obelisk earlier, it came down to a four wide finish..
Obelisk snatches it by a car length!
The last thing I tried was using the VW Sambabus against the field of Z's. It was seriously down on pp, but it was the only other hunk of junk that was eligible, given the entry requirements, so I thought "What the heck"! It turned out to be way better than the Z's off the line, and for the first lap I thought I was going to absolutely destroy everyone. But once they got their revs up, they pulled me in and I sunk into the middle of the field.
Small vs Large
Now then, my thoughts about the Z...
Any advantages it may have are instantly outweighed by the fact that it takes half a lifetime to get up to speed, and even then, that speed is still tremendously slow. It has no power and no torque, and will lose pace on even the slightest of inclines. It took me a solid minute to get to the start line in the TT, and is really only suited to flat or near flat tracks.
I will admit, it was kinda fun to throw around,
once it was up to speed, but would I ever drive it outside of COTW? Uhhrr, well realistically, no... I did try to tune it to 350pp and enter it in the 350pp quich match event, but there are many way more competitive options at that level, (Lotus Elise 111R, Mini Cooper S, etc) so it was serioulsy out-matched. I'll most likely never drive this car again.
I rate the Z
a sleeper. 
But not the sleeper we're used to. I'm calling it a sleeper because you will literally fall asleep while driving it!
Holy 🤬!!!
) and the engine is much more powerful.
