Honda’s tiny Acty van takes a comically long time to reach 60 mph. Its 43-hp engine has to be wrung out through all five gears to get there. At highway speeds, the little three-cylinder is already at 6,000 rpm. Kei vans have become cult favorites in America because they’re tiny, cheap and bursting with character. Unfortunately, Japan’s kei regulations weren’t written with Florida highways in mind, as one US-based owner demonstrates by attempting a 0-60 mph (97 kmh) run in his Honda Acty. The Acty minivan in JDM_toaster’s video appears to be a late second-generation, all-wheel drive model from around 1996-1999, an era when Honda’s little commercial box offered as little as 43 hp (44 PS), despite kei regulations allowing up to 63 hp (64 PS). That’s not much even when there isn’t much vehicle to haul around, and acceleration to American highway speeds requires commitment, patience and plenty of revs. Also: Daihatsu’s $10K Retro Kei Box Lets You Customize It Like A Sneaker JDM_toaster In almost any modern car, planting your right foot through multiple gears on a public road would make you look like an antisocial idiot. The hilarious thing here is that the Acty, despite apparently being driven flat out, is barely moving differently from the everyday pickups and SUVs surrounding it. There’s none of that familiar shove as each new gear gets wound out. Instead, speed builds gradually, but the gearshifts really do come thick and fast because the gearing is almost as funny as the lack of performance. Plenty of modern manual cars can reach 60 mph in second. The Acty needs fifth before the speedometer finally reaches that milestone and the entire zero to 60 run takes almost 35 seconds. Don’t Forget Your Earplugs With an indicated 100 kmh (62 mph) showing on the speedo, the engine is spinning at around 6,000 rpm. That works out at roughly 10 mph (16 kmh) per 1,000 rpm in top (fifth) gear, and probably less once speedo error is accounted for. My old 2001, five-speed Golf GTI 1.8T, itself hardly geared like a modern motorway cruiser, manages about that in second. Could the Acty have posted a marginally less leisurely time? Probably. The shifts don’t squeeze every last revolution from each gear, although chasing the 7,500 rpm redline might not accomplish much if power is already tailing away up there. But stopwatch accuracy isn’t really the point. The run perfectly demonstrates the compromises behind driving a kei van somewhere it was never designed to live. In Japanese cities, something this narrow, economical and maneuverable makes enormous sense. On American roads populated by 400 hp (406 PS) pickups cruising at 80 mph (130 kmh), the novelty might wear off quickly. But JDM_toaster seems besotted with his, which for a while shared garage space with a 911 GT3 RS, and America’s fascination with kei cars shows no signs of fading away. 1997 Honda Acty Street 4WD | Photos Cars&Bids
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