HONDA The Power of Dreams

In mid-1964, the RA271 was shipped to Europe on a cargo plane without having been properly tested, and made its F1 Grand Prix debut in ivory white with the Japanese flag painted on it. At the time, Honda had already made a name for itself around the world in international motorcycle racing, and had become a coveted manufacturer among motorcycle enthusiasts. However, as of 1964, its automobile business had just begun on a small scale. In other words, a motorcycle manufacturer suddenly developed an F1 machine and, wearing Japan’s symbolic rising-sun livery, ventured to Europe, the home of car racing, to challenge at the pinnacle of the sport.

It was seemingly a reckless challenge, and foreign media reported it as a threat. A 24-year-old mechanic, who could not speak a word of English and had never been abroad, went to Europe to work on the car, another reckless challenge. But, it was a natural attitude within Honda at the time was to say, “If you are told to go, you have no choice. Do the work, and get the results.”

Since there were no F1 racing drivers in Japan at the time, the RA271 was transported to the Zandvoort circuit in the Netherlands without having been fully tested. In order to test drive it by an actual driver, Ronnie Bucknum, the mostly unfinished car was rapidly assembled into running condition. Meanwhile, European journalists, who had learned that Honda, which had been very successful with motorcycles, had sent an F1 car, were already on site and began to cover the occurrences. What did they think of the machine with the Japanese flag painted on an ivory background?

The mechanics could not remember the sound of cameras clicking all around them, or what they looked like at all, because they had to reassemble the car into running condition and test it for the race in a limited amount of time while shorthanded, and they had to fully concentrate on maintenance work.

Interestingly, the mechanics were divided on the livery. Many of the teams at the time were British, and many of their cars were dark-colored. So, it was easy for mechanics, worried about the condition of their racing car, to distinguish the ivory Honda from a distance. This livery, however, also made the mechanics weep.

Because the body was light-colored, it needed to be cleaned after mechanics frantically worked on making the car operational with oily hands. One mechanic lamented that if it was a dark green color like Cooper’s, a little bit of oil wouldn't stand out, and wished the car was another color.

The rising-sun paint also caused problems only a mechanic would remember.

”I can say this now, but when the car raced at high speeds, the air pressure around the brake oil reserve tank in the brake master cylinder becomes negative, causing the brake oil in the reserve tank to ooze outt. That oil flows right onto the rising sun and dissolves the red paint. So I always carried some paint, and I would touch up and restore it each time after each run.”

How did the European racing community, let alone spectators, react to Honda F1’s sudden entry from the East to the world of F1? Some were not sure how Honda F1 would perform in a race with an unknown American driver, Ronnie Bucknum. But, once Honda and Bucknum demonstrated their abilities on track, opinions rapidly changed. The same was true at the mechanic level.