Born of Soichiro Honda’s passion for automobiles, Starting as a garage mechanic, he created a piston and ring manufacturing company which was virtually destroyed in World War II. Selling the remains of the company after the war he founded Honda Technical Research Institute in 1946 building motorized bicycles out of whatever engines were available until 1949, when he liquidated the company to form the Honda of today and to produce the first completely designed and engineered Honda motorcycle. By 1964 Honda was the world’s largest motorcycle producer.
Starting with racing in small displacement classes in the late 50s and early 60s, Success in the smaller displacement classes, led Honda to enter the premier GP race class which was dominated by 500cc bikes in 1966 with the 6 cylinder 250cc RC166. Although the RC166 only succeeded in finishing second in the championship in both 1966 and 1967, the technical sophistication and performance of the RC166 put the world on notice that Honda had arrived as a major force in racing. Success though would have to wait, as the advent of the 2 stroke era in the 70s and Honda’s obstinate refusal to develop 2 strokes took till the early 80s to end.
While the 70s left Honda behind in the race to produce high performance road bikes, Honda came back at the market with a vengeance starting in the 80s as tightening emissions regulations signaled the end of street 2 strokes. Beginning with endurance racing using the FWS1000 derivative of the DOHC CB750 in 1980, the V4 VFR750 in 1983 at the advent of the AMA Superbike displacement limit going from 1000cc to 750cc and capitulation to the dominance of 2 strokes in GP racing in 1983 with the NS500, which American Freddie Spencer used to win the GP world championship twice, Honda came from near roadracing obscurity in the 70s to dominance in the 80s. By the time the World Superbike Championship was begun in 1988, Honda had produced the legendary RC30 homologation special which American Fred Merkel used to win the championship in 1988 and 1989. Honda followed on with the World Superbike championship winning RC45 in 1994 (American John Kocinski 1997) and RC51 in 2000 (American Colin Edwards in 2000 and 2002).
