Too many US states are currently attacking innocent little kei trucks, but if you don’t live in one of those places, I have a surprise for you. Up for grabs is an absolutely cool pair. This custom purple 1997 Honda Acty is towing a custom color-matched 2020 Honda Grom with an extended swingarm and air suspension. If that’s not the cutest pair in recent memory, I don’t know what is.

This is the second Honda Acty we’ve written about recently. The last truck sold for a shocking $40,700, and I still don’t know where all the money went. This one is different. Someone has taken the trouble to make this Acty one of the hardest Kei trucks I’ve ever seen, and the Grom on the back is just the icing on the cake. Even cooler is the fact that the Bring-a-Trailer auction only runs for one more day, but this rig is selling for a far more reasonable $17,200 at the time of writing.

Put on some dark sunglasses and let’s go for a ride!

Ancestry

The Honda Acty is one of the many kei trucks that Americans bring to America. While states like Maine and Michigan despise these vehicles, many enthusiastic Americans find these little trucks to be great vehicles. In my travels, I have found that kei truck owners are people who use their trucks for their small businesses. Kei truck owners are also people who use their trucks on the farm, off-road, or around town where something like a Ford F-150 is just too big.

Kei trucks may not be fast, but their utility is virtually unlimited. Plus, they’re just something different. No one minds if you park the latest Silverado in your driveway, but everyone from kids to grumpy adults loves to look at kei vehicles.

Pretty much any kei truck is great, but Honda’s is especially cool because it’s a descendant of the brand’s first production car. In 1955, Japan’s Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) introduced the concept for a people’s car.

Honda missed this initiative because company founder Soichiro Honda wanted the vehicles that bore his name to be perfect. The company spent so much time developing its cars that by the early 1960s Honda was under threat of being consolidated under MITI’s then-new plan to strengthen Japanese industry. Suddenly Soichiro had no choice but to build some cars or face elimination, so he ordered two mini sports cars and two mini trucks to be completed that same year.

The first of these vehicles to go into series production was the T360 small truck. In 1967, the T360 developed into the TN360, one of the direct predecessors of the Honda Acty of 1977.

What you see here is something like a piece of history. It is a descendant of the little truck that started it all.

These purple beauties

This 1997 Honda Acty came to America in 2022, where it underwent a transformation that made it what you see today. The truck is sold by its manufacturer, tuning shop Joe’s Mini Trucks.

According to Bring a Trailer’s listing, the truck was initially painted in plain white like so many other kei trucks. Then earlier this year, the truck was repainted in Midnight Purple, the famous color of the Nissan Skyline GT-R R34. The paint job looks really good, but is limited to the exterior. The interior of the truck remains white.

The paint job alone is cool, but Joe’s Mini Trucks and its partner shops have gone above and beyond here. The truck has Bride upholstery on the seats and headrests, as well as a Sparco steering wheel and Bride shift knob. OK, that’s pretty cool, but then you read that the truck now has a custom instrument cluster with tachometer and custom power steering. Granted, these trucks are so light that they don’t need power steering, but it’s still crazy that they went to the trouble of giving the truck working power steering. The interior is rounded out with mention of a dashboard clock, custom Pioneer sound system, and air horns.

Back outside, you can see that the truck is fitted with a set of Enkei RPF1 wheels and has some custom features in the form of a spoiler on the back of the cab, another spoiler at the front and special fenders. There is also a clear engine cover, LED lighting, a special ramp for the Grom and a wheel chock. The list goes on:

The 656cc inline-three cylinder was rated at 38 hp and 40 lb-ft of torque from the factory and was equipped with a Magnaflow exhaust system with a tubular header. It was serviced by the seller with Redline MTL fluids, an A/C filter, a valve cover gasket, NGK Premium RX spark plugs and replacement ignition wires, as well as a replacement spark cap and rotor.

Honestly I’d be here all day trying to list all the modifications that include suspension work, so just click here to read everything that’s been done.

The Joe’s Mini Trucks representative says the idea was to build the ultimate Kei street truck, which is why this truck is rear-wheel drive. The shop also points out that major modifications to these trucks, such as turbos, are expensive without providing much actual benefit, so the goal was to build the best Acty possible by adding various add-on parts and reducing weight.

Now we come to the truck’s companion, which is Honda’s mini rockstar, the Grom. This Grom was painted to match the truck and they even went so far as to add the Bride pad to the bike’s seat as well. A factory Grom is a silly stunt machine that doubles as a great commuter and learning bike. This one isn’t quite that judging by the list of modifications:

• Extended swingarm and drive chain
• Mojo Customs lowering kit for front and rear
• Goodridge stainless steel brake hoses
• Custom panels and support stands
• Air-sprung rear suspension and built-in air compressor
• TST fender remover with LED lights
• DROWsports side stand bypass switch
• Custom foot control

Mojo Customs clip-on handlebars feature mini mirrors and sit behind a digital instrument display with a bar-style tachometer, as well as gauges for vehicle speed, fuel level and time. The digital odometer shows 1,500 miles.

More bike than you can handle

There’s a saying in the car community that mods don’t add value. I basically agree with that up to a point and I think this combination far exceeds that point. You get a great Grom and a unique kei truck in one package here and I think most mods add more than they take away.

Even better is the fact that this can’t really “hurt” anyone. If these mods aren’t for you, there are countless stock kei trucks coming across the border dirt cheap every day.

The craftsmanship seems to be high on both conversions, and I bet the buyer will have tons of fun driving them around. It’s also just cool to see that there’s a kei tuning culture here in America. Perhaps states like Rhode Island could see the passion that goes into projects like this and rethink their plans. Either way, if you’re “into clowning” with these purple rides, they’ll be on Bring a Trailer for another day. I’d love to see the outfit of someone driving this pair.

(Images: Joe’s Mini Trucks unless otherwise noted.)