One big Honda nation

Canada is the No. 3 producer of Honda passenger cars worldwide, and the No. 4 buyer. No wonder its president is happy...

Hiroshi Kobayashi is a car nut. When he was at university in Japan, he wanted to buy a small car, an S800 sports car. His father told him he wasn't going to buy it for him.

"So, I got a job delivering milk to pay for it."

If you don't recognize the car model, don't be surprised. It was a micro sports car built in the 1960s, equipped with a 791-cubic-centimetre engine that could move the car up to 160 kilometres an hour. It looked like a Triumph Spitfire but was made by Honda, which makes the story worth telling since Kobayashi now runs Honda Canada.

"I love cars," says Kobayashi, who talks about the four-barrel carburetor that used to coax 70 horsepower out of the S800's tiny engine. Now, he drives an Acura RL, the 300 horsepower, top-of-the-line car in the Honda stable. He may have only been in Canada since April, but his RL has four snow tires - even with all-wheel drive.
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