The Cappuccino has a new companion!

[Chris da Silva]

Hello from the Land Down Under! I hope you are all coping well with this horrid pandemic that's sweeping the world!

Moving on ... I just bought a companion for my Cappo - a Honda Beat PP1. So now, I have two Kei cars in my stable! The Honda's mechanical setup is that its engine (all 656cc of it) is rear-mounted and transverse; but unlike the Cappo, it's normally-aspirated. It was only fitted with a 5-speed manual gearbox for its entire production run; and as you can imagine, the pedals are very close together, not too unlike the one fitted to the EA11R (and some EA21R) Cappos.

It has about the same top end as the production Cappo; but acceleration figures are slightly slower because it's fitted to a non-turbo'd engine.

I'm trying to get some information about the steering rack. For a light car, the steering is quite heavy - in fact, slightly heavier than my EA21R. Does anyone out there have any information in this area, please? All I need to know is whether there is a Honda steering rack which is powered and which can be a direct replacement for the existing [non-powered] rack.

The second info is that as the engine is mounted behind the driver, it's also quite noisy whilst driving! Is there a noise insulation kit available for this car?

[Ian Linden]

Hi Chris,

Still alive, and had the first jab, 2nd due shortly. Things are not too bad here - only 4 cases currently in the Island.

I think your best bet would be an electric power steering unit mounted on the steering column, like the one on some Cappos, and on quite a number of the small Suzuki vehicles like the WagonR. But it won't be a drop-in, At minimum, you'd have to modify your column by cut-and-weld to create a hybrid, unless Honda made a similar vehicle and used the same parts bin.

The same noise problem as the AZ1 - I think you're in DIY territory again. I've done that on one or two cars, using the old-fashioned horsehair-based matting - I gather there are some modern materials which are allegedly better and less messy.

[Chris da Silva]

Hello Ian.

Yep, I just had my first jab too and waiting for the follow-up! Where I am in Western Australia (WA), the cases here are almost zero as the WA borders are/were shut to the other states like Victoria (VIC), New South Wales (NSW) and Queensland (QLD) where practically all the infections are in this country! In that respect, anyone living here in WA are very lucky indeed! In fact, WA was recently labelled "an island within an island", if you see what I mean (much to the dismay of the other states!). The state premier/governor instigated this arrangement, and it worked wonders! Which means that anyone coming from the other states east of the WA state border will have to undergo the mandatory 14-day isolation period before they're allowed to roam freely!

Re Honda Beat, I'll have to look into this steering rack situation further and see what happens. There is a German manufacturer called EZ Power Steering who manufactures a bolt-on attachment to early British and European cars which do not come with power steering; but for some strange reason, they don't do Japanese cars! That was the first place I looked and I'm obviously disappointed! So I was wondering whether anyone here [on this site] and reading this can suggest a new place to look! What I want to do is to keep the Honda as factory original and not modify it. (My Cappuccino is factory original ... )

Do you know a contact in the UK Honda Beat club whom I can approach for this information? (There's no WA branch of the Honda Club here; and the only one I know of is in VIC. I tried contacting them and was given the name of one of their members who owns a Beat. Unfortunately, he's in the dark too about this!)

As for the sound-deadening material for the engine compartment, I'll have to keep looking. There's has to be a kit available somewhere .....

[Ian Linden]

Hello Chris,

I'm afraid I have no contacts in the Beat Club. As there were only 30,000 or so made, the chance of a UK company catering for its steering rack must be slim to nil.

How about this one?

[Chris da Silva]

Hello Ian.

I'll look into the possibility of a power steering kit tomorrow. But here's something to note .....

I think you already know that my Cappuccino is a Series 2 (EA21R) with the rarer 3-speed automatic box. The Honda, on the other hand, has the 5-speed manual box not too unlike what the Cappuccinos had. (In its entire production run, the Beat never came with an auto box.)

So when I'm doing about 95 kph on the open road, my Cappuccino is reading 4500 rpm on the rev counter. But the Honda at the same speed is reading 5000 rpm - 500 rpm quicker!

Comparing that with a Cappuccino with a manual box, is that about right?

Chris

[Ian Linden]

According to the official specs at http://www.suzuki-cappuccino.com/a_information/a_cappuccino/tech_spec.php, the manual Cappo on standard tyres does 16 mph per 1000 rpm in 5th, so your 95 kph will be 3,711 rpm.

Not surprised at the difference, as it has always been said that the Beat compensates for its lack of turbo by using exceptionally high rpm.

Interestingly, from your data, the 3 speed Cappo in 3rd is only doing 13.2 mph per 1000 rpm. Shows the effect of having such a low top gear.

EDIT: Adding the Beat in, for completeness, it does 11.9 mph per 1000 rpm.