Hondamobilia @ francisgan.com

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Here's an Index of the real cars.

Photos and data courtesy of Honda Motor Company and Honda Collection Hall.

  1961 Cooper T53 Climax
  1963 Honda S500
  1963 Honda T360
  1964 Honda RA271
  1965 Brabham Honda BT16
  1965 Honda RA272

Designed by Yoshio Nakamura, the RA272 was raced in 1965 - starting 14 races and finishing only half of them, earning 13 points in the process. That year, the RA272 raced 604 laps covering about 1921 miles.

At the Mexican Grand Prix (the last of the 1.5 litre years) Richie Ginther took the Honda RA272 to victory from 3rd on the grid. It was a notable race in the it provided the little American with his first (and only) victory and also marked the first ever race win by the tyre company Goodyear. The 272 incorporated many of the lessons of the previous model including the transverse mounted engine which held out to win a race that saw most of the field simply fall off the track.

  1965 Honda S600 Coupe
  1966 Honda P800
  1967 Honda N360
  1967 Honda RA273
  1967 Honda RA 300

Designed by Eric Broadley and John Surtees, the RA300 rain in both the 1967 and 1968 seasons in 3 races - winning 1 with 1 DNF. The 228 laps (663 miles) earned the RA300 12 points between the 2 seasons.

For the RA300 Honda retained the V12 unit of the previous model but recruited Eric Broadley of Lola to produce the chassis. He managed to design a much lighter car which was quickly dubbed the 'Hondola'.

The car only had three outings with Surtees at the helm netting a first place at Monza in 1967 in its first ever race.

  1968 Honda RA301

Designed by Eric Broadley, John Surtees, Yoshio Nakamura and Derrick White, the RA301 had 14 entries in 12 races with 9 DNF's with only a best finish of P2 though it did achieve 1 pole. Over the 614 raced laps, the RA301 covered 1793 miles and scored 14 points. However, it did lead 82 miles over 10 laps.

The 1968 main-line car followed on from the RA300 although it was less chunky than its predecessor. It was never as successful as the previous version and in 1968 Honda slipped to sixth in the Constructors Cup.

  1968 Honda RA302

The RA302 was the last Honda F1 car for over 15 years before Honda reentered F1. Designed by Yoshio Nakamura, the RA302 entered only 1 race that it did not finish after having completed on 8 miles in 2 laps.

An incredibly innovative car with an air-cooled 120 degree V8 had massive potential that was never realised. Equipped with a magnesium-skinned monocoque with the engine suspended from a boom the car suffered from little development work before being entered for the 1968 French Grand Prix. John Surtees, lead driver for the team, was opposed to the car being entered and his fears were borne out when the driver Jo Schlesser was killed. The car, with its exposed engine intakes was susceptible to wet weather conditions and when it began to rain the engine cut out and Schlesser lost control and died in the fierce fire than ensued.

A second car was built and was earmarked to be driven in practise for the Italian race by Surtees. John declined and Honda withdrew from Grand Prix racing at the end of the season.

  1968 Honda S800
  1968 Honda S800 RSC
  1969 Honda 1300 77
  1970 Honda 1300 Coupe9
  1970 Honda Vamos
  1970 Honda Z
  1971 Honda Life
  1972 Honda Civic
  1972 Honda Life Step Van
  1974 Honda Civic RS
  1979 Honda Civic CS
  1980 Ralt Honda RG-6-80
  1981 Honda CIty
  1983 Honda Ballade Sport CRX
  1983 Honda Civic Hatchback
  1983 Honda Prelude
  1983 Spirit Honda 201C
  1984 Honda City Cabriolet
  1984 Ralt Honda RH-6-84
  1984 Williams Honda FW09
  1985 Honda Accord Sedan
  1985 Honda Legend
  1985 Honda Quint Integra
  1986 March Honda 86J
  1986 Williams Honda FW11
  1987 Honda Civic Si Race
  1988 Honda Accord Coupe
  1988 Lotus Honda 100T
  1988 McLaren Honda MP4/4
  1991 Honda Beat
  1991 McLaren Honda MP4/6
  1992 Honda CRX Del Sol
  1992 McLaren Honda MP4/7
  1994 Honda NSX-R
  1995 Honda NSX Le Mans Racer
  1997 Honda Accord SiR Race
  1997 Honda EV Plus
  1999 Honda Insight
  2000 BAR Honda 002
  2000 Honda NSX JGTC
  2000 Reynard 2KI Honda
  2001 Honda Integra Type R Race
  2002 Jordan Honda EJ12
  2002 Lola B02 Honda

© francis gan (2003, 2004)

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