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The backdrop could hardly have been more German: Sōichirō Honda, the ingenious founder of the brand of the same name, chartered a Rhine ship near Koblenz in 1963 to introduce Germans to Japanese cars. He had brought a nimble convertible with him. Those invited smiled at the car: the S500 drove the rear wheels via chains that ran through an oil bath. That's how it is when a motorcycle company wants to build cars, they say.

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