Vol.1 Honda’s First F1 Car was Painted Gold｜Goodwood 2005｜Goodwood Festival of Speed

The Goodwood Festival of Speed was held over three days from June 24, 2005.

This year, on the 40th anniversary of its first F1 victory, Honda became the first Japanese manufacturer to serve as the main sponsor of this world-class historic motorsports event.

The theme of this year’s event was “Racing Colors.” In the plaza in the center of the venue, there was a huge arm with six Honda F1 cars mounted, as if to symbolize this theme,

It slowly shimmered over the heads of the people.

The scene was a majestic sight worthy of being the star of the show.

Honda’s First F1 Car was Painted Gold

The grand design of the monument depicted successive generations of Honda F1 machines soaring down from the sky, awe-inspiring to the thousands upon thousands of visitors.

Motor sports fans of all ages gathered, some in search of memories of days bygone, others to confirm the historic stories they had heard about.

The Goodwood Festival of Speed was held in spectacular fashion again this year. Six Honda racing machines were fixed to the central monument at the venue. Two of the cars, which raced in Honda’s very first season of F1 racing, boldly featured the rising-sun flag. This livery was assigned to Japan as the “national colors” required of F1 participants by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) at the time. The PR manager of Honda U.K.*, who was on hand to manage the event, said:

“The theme of this year’s Goodwood Festival is ‘Racing Colors.’ Within this theme, we were very particular about running a Honda F1 car with the Japanese national colors, the rising-sun flag, painted on it.”

On the track where racing events are held, competition cars decorated in a variety of colors race in packs. The dazzling feast of colors is one of the attractions of motor racing. In recent years, the sponsors’ colors have become mainstream, but in the past, the situation was different. In F1 in particular, the cars were required to basically be painted in the colors of the nationality of the team. These national colors were established in the early 1900s by the FIA, the governing body of F1.

Although Honda had already gained worldwide fame through its success in the Isle of Man TT races and as the motorcycle World GP champion in 1961, this was Honda’s first entry in car racing, and the FIA had not yet designated a national color for Japan. Honda had to begin its entry process by first registering the Japanese national colors with the FIA.

*Honda Motor Europe Ltd. (United Kingdom): imports and sells Honda motorcycles, automobiles, and power products, and oversees sales, production and development among other functions throughout Europe.

＊ The central display in front of Lord March’s residence. From left, the RA272, RA300, Lotus Honda 99T, Williams Honda FW11, McLaren Honda MP4/4, and B-A-R Honda 006.

A copy of the designs that Honda took to the FIA to determine the national color of Japan. The rising-sun (Japanese flag) already appears at this stage.

At first, Soichiro Honda wanted to paint livery of the Honda F1 car, the color that would become the national color of Japan, gold, saying, “Paint the body gold, preferably use gold leaf,” and in fact, the experimental RA270 was painted gold in its early development. Honda development staff at the time said:

The old man [Soichiro Honda] initially told us to glue gold leaf on the car. But there was a stubborn old man in the painting room at the time who was a very good craftsman who said, ‘There is no way you can do that, no matter what the old man said!’ Still, he thought he could make it gold somehow, and recalling that the scales used by a butcher shop near the factory at the time were gold, checked the scales and asked the paint factory if they could make a similar color. The color was gold, but it was a rather coarse flaky paint, and a thick layer of clear paint was applied to it, so it glowed brightly. The old man didn’t complain, so I guess it was all right.

But why was Soichiro Honda so obsessed with the color gold? Some say that he just wanted to be flashy, while others believe that for Soichiro, gold was the color of Japan.

Behind the Scenes in Choosing Ivory White with a Red Rising Sun

However, the RA271, the actual car that debuted in F1 in 1964, ended up being painted not in gold, but in ivory white with a red Rising Sun. One theory as to how this livery represented Japan’s national colors was that the FIA had made the proposal, but other theories were obtained during this interview.

Honda knew that gold had already been registered as the national color of another country before it entered into negotiations with the FIA, and it almost decided on white at one point, but the ivory and Japanese flag combination was adopted because it resembled German silver. The original livery that Yoshio Nakamura, Honda’s first F1 principal, brought with him to the FIA for negotiations was based on the RA270, an experimental car, with the Japanese flag painted on a white background.

According to the development staff mentioned above,”The old man decided on the position and size of the risign sun circle. Not the details such as diameter, but using gestures. If I couldn’t understand what he meant, the shape, color, and size he wanted, he would have hit me. I think the color is not bad, but it wasn’t about being good or bad. The old man had made his decision. Personally, I think it would have been better with a line added.

In addition to such testimony, there is also a record that the RA270, an experimental car, was later repainted from gold to white for test runs, suggesting that the national colors of ivory white and the rising-sun flag was an idea that was proposed within Honda (or rather, in Soichiro Honda’s mind) before previously believed.