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Sports car dealer learns that looks can be deceiving.

As someone who’s never owned a car with a fixed roof, it’s my firm belief that everyone should spend as much time as they can in life driving a convertible. Of course, for many car buyers, affordability is at least as important as excitement when choosing a car, but there are budget-friendly drop-top options, such as Honda’s S660.

The S660 carries on the legacy of Honda’s Beat, which was sold from 1991 to 1996, by being a lightweight, mid-engined, rear-wheel drive convertible. Like the Beat, the S660 belongs to Japan’s ultra-compact kei class, making it relatively inexpensive to own and operate, and thus within the realistic, near-future aspirations of young motorists like the schoolgirl who appears in this video from car manufacturer Honda’s Minami Kanto division, which serves the southern section of east Japan.

As the video opens, we see a young lady dressed in a school uniform walk into the Honda showroom and ask the dealer for a test drive of a white S660. After filling out the paperwork, it’s time to hit the road.

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Making small talk, the salesmen asks her how long she’s had her license for, to which she replies that it hasn’t been very long since she passed her driver’s test. Still, she seems to know what she’s doing, as she works the car’s manual transmission with no problems as the car makes its way out of the city.

But it turns out that driving stick is hardly the extent of her automotive skills, as she nonchalantly turns the car off the road and onto a race track!

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As she hustles the car around the corners, the smile on her face gets bigger and bigger, while the dealer’s face becomes taught with startled panic.

▼ Copious body roll aside, the S660 does look like a lot of fun to drive.

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It turns out the driver is no ordinary teen, but actually 18-year-old racer Miki Koyama, who’s currently competing in the Formula 4 open-wheel category. Influenced by her motorsports-loving father, Koyama got started in racing at the age of 6, when she competed in junior kart races.

▼ Essentially, she could do this before she could do long division.

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Honda is coy about whether the video was shot with hidden cameras or pre-staged, but in either case, it’s getting both the S660, and its surprisingly skillful driver, plenty of attention.

Source: Spotlight
Images: YouTube/南関東 Honda Cars