The incredible Soichiro Honda, founder of his eponymous automotive giant, was born on this day in 1906. Under his leadership, Honda entered motorcycle racing with technology that stunned the world and sparked a power struggle that changed the sport forever. Mat Oxley explains in today's Great Read
In September 1964, famed Honda engineer Michihiko Aika and rider Jim Redman climbed aboard a BOAC VC10 at Tokyo's Haneda airport, bound for Monza, via Hong Kong, Calcutta, Karachi and Rome. Sitting next to them was their new motorcycle, laid across three passenger seats and hidden beneath a blanket. The decision to race the bike at the season-ending Italian Grand Prix had been last minute, too late to freight it to Italy.
The machine was Honda's RC165, a six-cylinder 250cc four-stroke created to defeat Yamaha's twin-cylinder RD56 two-stroke, which had proved too much for Honda's four-cylinder RC164...
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario