Barrett-Jackson: Neat Little Z600 and World’s Lamest Custom Civic

Matte-painted, base-model Civic wears pop star signature.

Hondas seldom turn up to big auction-house events. When they do, however, you can bet you’re in for one of two things. The first you’ll find is the occasional classic, early American market like a Honda Z600. The second will be some kind of silly custom car—usually a Civic—with an inflated sense of value. In the case of the upcoming Barrett-Jackson Northeast on June 21 through 24, we find one of each: a bright-yellow ‘72 Z600 and a late-model Civic “designed” by a pop star.

We’ll start with the Z600 because people still seem to want these.

With a bantamweight chassis and kei car dimensions, the Z600 must have felt like a death trap among the hulking American iron of the 1970s. Nevertheless, the two-cylinder, 598 cubic-centimeter engine managed 36 horsepower, which wasn’t bad for the displacement and the time, really. The engine also revved to 8,500 RPM, though few would describe the engine as “smooth.”

While Honda first entered the United States market with the S600 and N600, the “sport compact” version of the Z600 looked fairly ahead of its time. Honda sold them stateside from 1970 to 1972 in relatively small numbers. They will never have the collector appeal of the S600 roadster, but a clean-ish example like could fall anywhere between $5,000 and $10,000.

As for the 2016 Honda Civic Custom, we had to look up “Demi Lovato,” who apparently is a pop star and actress who sketched the custom paint.

Or signed off on it. Or something. Honda sponsored a tour that Lovato did with Nick Jonas and this car “accompanied” that tour. Since it only has 200 miles on it, we assume it was placed on static display at the arenas or something. Fewer auction cars could prompt more ambivalence, really.

Regardless, it appears to be a pretty standard base-model Civic with a normal interior, a custom paint job, and the signature of a probably-forgotten-in-five-years celebrity. The low mileage probably remains the biggest selling point. This essentially is a brand-new 2016 Honda Civic so it’ll probably sell for about as much as a gently used, year-old Civic.