When Sōichirō Honda founded his company, the Honda Technical Research Institute, in 1946, few could have imagined the significant role it would play in the motorsports industry. Mr. Honda was an innovative engineer, a dreamer, a hard worker, and a passionate motorsport enthusiast, attributes that placed him along with big names like Henry Ford and Enzo Ferrari.
The Early Age - Pre-Company Owner Racing Days
Sōichirō Honda was a car lover from a very early age. When he was only 15, he saw a job advertisement for Tokyo Art Shokai, a car and motorcycle factory and repair shop. As a curious and skilled blacksmith son, Sōichirō was hired as a helping hand, and the company’s owner, Yuko Sakakibara, didn’t take long to notice the teenager’s mechanical skills and become his mentor. This fortunate event allowed a very young Honda to get involved in racing.
Two years later, Yuko Sakakibara and his brother, Shinichi, invited Honda and some of their best mechanics to work on their new project, a racing car, to compete in the Fifth Japan Automobile Competition. Firstly, they worked on a Daimler engine, but then, they replaced it with a more powerful and reliable engine, an OX-5 8.2-liter engine borrowed from a Curtiss biplane aircraft. The 90 HP engine was mounted in an American Mitchell chassis, and the build was a success: the racecar, driven by Shinichi Sakibara with Sōichirō Honda as a riding mechanic, won the 1924 Japanese championship.
Art Shokai became a successful brand and expanded, opening several branches all over Japan. When Sōichirō Honda decided to return to his natal home village, the brand awarded him by allowing him to open his own branch in the closest city, Hamamatsu. Honda continued racing until 1936, when he had a severe accident at the Tamagawa Speedway while driving a self-built racecar. Due to the gravity of the accident and some family pressure, he quit racing. However, it was clear that despite the incident, a World War or other adversities would take him away from racing, the sport that would forge his future for good.
Honda’s First Racing Endeavours
By 1954, Sōichirō Honda had co-founded Honda Motor Co. with Takeo Fujisawa. The company had just started offering shares in Tokyo’s OTC (over-the-counter market), and their “Dream” D-Type motorcycle was selling well despite that year’s recession. Faithful to the company CEO's bold style, the brand sought to expand its horizons beyond Japan. Before Bob Tasca Sr. said his famous “Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday” phrase in the 60s, Honda applied the concept and decided that Honda should enter the iconic Isle of Man TT motorcycle Grand Prix. It was a big challenge for Honda at that time, especially considering their first product was basically a bicycle powered by a motor with the power of a sewing machine.
Sōichirō Honda announced the seemingly impossible challenge, and a team started working on what, after five years of development, would become the RC142 racing bike. Before heading to the legendary Isle of Man TT Race, the team made a scale in Brazil to compete at the São Paulo City International Motor Race, which was held to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the city. The 124cc machine ridden by Mikio Omura arrived 13th, a good result for a first race, but showing that it still had a lot of room for improvement.
After Brazil, the team headed for the highly anticipated Isle of Man TT race, finishing in positions 6, 7, 8, and 11, attracting the desired attention from the motorcycling world, and receiving the Manufacturers’ Team Award. The race results were extremely helpful for putting the brand on the map and with excellent timing, as 1959 was the year Honda Motor Co. established a branch in the USA. Interestingly, Sōichirō Honda considered his brand’s first participation at the Isle of Man TT race as a failure and said, “Success is made of 99% of failures”. Perhaps this mentality is what makes Honda so great: the desire to outperform themselves over and over, pushing and pushing and achieving one breakthrough after the other. Honda got fully involved in motorcycle racing.
In 1960, Honda participated in all seven races of the 125cc and 250cc of the World Championship Grand Prix season with varied results. The following year, 1961, would be the first successful year for Honda’s motorsport venture. Honda won the 125cc and 250cc classes at the Isle of Man TT race and the season’s riders’ and constructors’ championship.
Honda would continue to develop its racing motorcycles, winning championships and taking all the learnings and innovations from the racetrack to its street models.
Sōichirō Honda strongly believed in the philosophy that motorsports help manufacturers transfer cutting-edge technology to mass-produced vehicles. In 1962, Honda introduced a prototype car and a light truck at the Japan Motor Show: the SPORTS360 and the T360, respectively. The commercial version of the SPORTS360 was never released for sale. Instead, in 1963, Honda launched the T360 light truck and the S500 and, soon after the release of the two vehicles, Honda announced its entrance to the Formula 1 by the 1964 season. This goal was even more ambitious than entering the Isle of Man TT race; however, Sōichirō Honda and his team weren’t afraid of demonstrating what they could do. Honda made its F1 debut at the Nürburgring circuit, the 6th race of 1964’s F1 season, finishing in the 13th place. 1964’s Honda F1 car, the RA271 was fully developed in-house. The 1965 evolution, the RA272, gave the Japanese brand its first win in the F1 at the Mexican GP.
Honda participated in the sport as a team during the 1964-1968 and 2006-2008 seasons with bitter-sweet results. However, the brand achieved six constructors’ championships in partnership with Williams and McLaren and became a successful and reliable F1 engine supplier. Honda’s engines powered the cars that made legends like Ayrton Senna and Alan Prost win some of the most memorable F1 championships and continue to power champions up as Max Verstappen just won his fourth consecutive F1 world championship driving a Red Bull powered by a Honda RBPT power unit.
Honda has seen and conquered races and championships in Moto GP, F1, Indy, LeMans, and other world-class categories. In 1982, the brand established Honda Racing Corporation, a division specialized in developing and managing all things related to motorsports, products’ special editions, and more. Even after his retirement, Sōichirō Honda was deeply involved in the company and Motorsport, especially supervising the motorsports division until his passing in 1991. Today, the competitive spirit remains alive in the brand in both street and racing vehicles. As Honda specialists and enthusiasts at Remtune, we honor the brand’s racing success and identify with its highly passionate, perfectionist, and competitive work ethic.