HONDA The Power of Dreams

Winning its debut race. This would not come as a surprise in Honda’s second era of F1 racing, but in its first period, without the experience and knowhow, it was nothing short of a miracle that the RA300 won on its first outing.

The RA300 debuted at Round 9, Italy in September 1967, and won by 0.2 seconds, the closest margin in the history of Grand Prix racing at that time, giving Honda its second victory. It had a somewhat mysterious background, skipping a few numbers from its predecessor, the RA273.

In retrospect, Honda’s car development since the beginning of the 3L era was a constant battle with weight. Honda had been developing the F1 cars in-house ever since the RA271 in 1964, and faced problems it alone could not solve in the transition to the 3L era: Overweight cars.

For Honda, which had traditionally prioritized engine power in all of its racing machines, the most important element in engine design was the mechanism that enabled higher output. For example with its grand prix bikes, if it believed there was a power advantage, Honda was highly motivated to develop mechanisms that other companies would never have considered, such as 50cc two-cylinder, 125cc four-cylinder, and 250cc six-cylinder engines.

While these increasingly complex mechanisms did not pose much of a problem for motorcycles, which were small in size, when applied to a 3-liter F1 engine, it was far too heavy.

Honda was well aware of the issues, and in fact, from the time of the RA271, had been very concerned with reducing weight and had continued to experiment with engine and chassis construction that made extensive use of light-alloy materials.

However, Honda had always been a motorcycle manufacturer with a strong background on engine development, and had little to no expertise in automobiles, including mass-produced models. It must have been no small feat to develop an F1 chassis, but Honda was also one of the first manufacturers to attempt an aluminum monocoque structure at a time when space frames were at their peak, showing a high level of technical insight.

Yet, Honda was only able to reduce the RA273’s weight down to 650 kg, and from that point on was probably at a loss. For good or bad, other suppliers such as BRM, Climax, and Repco had their own problems, and the teams were in a kind of equilibrium of low competitiveness. In other words, none of the teams were at their best.

This situation changed in June 1967, when the Lotus 49 powered by a Cosworth DFV debuted in Round 3, the Dutch GP. In addition to a new lightweight, compact, and high-output engine, a lightweight and highly rigid aluminum monocoque, and high performance components overall, its design concept of integrating the engine and monocoque was also new. The Lotus outputted 405ps (1967) while weighing only 500kg. It was in a completely different dimension.

For Honda, which had managed to somehow keep the RA273 racing with constant minor improvements, the Lotus 49 came as a shock, and the sense of urgency prompted it to begin development of a completely new model. RA300 development began around the time of the British GP, when the Lotus 49 claimed its second victory, and only six weeks before Honda raced the new car.

Chassis development for the RA300 was in the hands of Lola Cars, introduced through John Surtees, Honda’s new driver and 1964 champion, who had won the first Can-Am championship the previous year in a factory Lola T70.

Lola Cars, founded in 1958 led by Eric Broadley, was a chassis constructor with the most extensive know-how in aluminum monocoques at the time, and was also involved in the development of the Ford GT. Tony Southgate, who would later become famous for designing Group C and GT1 cars, was also on the design team.

The reason the RA300 was not named RA274 was to distinguish it from the 200 models built completely in-house, and the Lola-designed car. This decision is said to be attributed to Yoshio Nakamura, who had returned as team manager. It was a German journalist who dubbed the RA300 “Hondola,” merging Honda and Lola. The name was intended to make fun of the fact that the car was not purely Honda, but it could also be interpreted favorably as a symbol of Honda’s shift from trying to win alone, to collaborating with outside help if needed.

The RA300, prepared in the short span of around 6 weeks, was built on a monocoque frame based on the IndyCar T90, with the RA273E engine and gearbox, a modified version of the 1967 RA273. This V-12 engine produced 420ps at 11,500 rpm. The chassis designed by Lola, at the forefront of monocoque manufacturing technology at the time, reduced the RA300’s weight by approximately 70 kg compared to the RA273. Lola called this body the T130 in its own development list, which shows the depth of its involvement.

The RA300 was ready in time for the Italian Grand Prix. Although the Surtees-driven RA300 brought Honda its second F1 victory in its debut race, it was not a victory that came through superiority.

Jim Clark's Lotus 49 had taken the lead in this race, but ran out of gas on the last lap. Jack Brabham (Brabham Repco), who had taken over the lead, was challenged by Surtees, who used the power of the engine in last ditch effort, to take the checkered flag of the drama-filled race by 0.2 seconds.

The RA300 had given Honda its second win, but as feared, the hastily built chassis was not rigid enough, and was said to have been difficult to set up. Even so, the RA300 won its debut race in near-shakedown conditions, demonstrating the outstanding performance of Honda engines at the time. Only one RA300 was ever built, the only surviving units being the winning car.

Honda raced the RA300 until the opening round in 1968, the South African GP. In its four races, it had finished 4th in the final round, Mexico, in 1967. This was not a bad track record, but it was undeniably only the bridge to Honda’s next serious effort, the RA301. This car, however, never won a race.

The hastily built car wins, while the car built with ample time doesn’t. In racing, fate leaves ironic results.