Motorsports・Sports
Reviving Ayrton Senna’s F1 Car Engine as a Model
POINTWhat you can learn from this article
- 2024 marks the 30th anniversary of Senna’s passing and the 60th anniversary since Honda first participated in F1
- Decision was made to create a precision model of Senna’s F1 car engine
- Honda has won races through determination to produce the world’s best and first products
Ayrton Senna was a legendary racing driver from Brazil, known in Japan as the “Prince of the Speed of Sound.”
On May 1, 1994, a tragic accident at the San Marino Grand Prix took Senna away. In 2024, 30 years after the Brazilian legend’s passing, Kusaka Engineering, which specializes in producing engine scale models, selected the RA100 E as its first Honda engine model. The engine, which powered Senna’s McLaren Honda MP4/5B in 1990, was a naturally aspirated 3.5 liter V10, which Honda had introduced after its domination during the turbo era which ended in 1988.
In this issue of Honda Stories, Tadashi Sasaki, president of Kusaka Engineering, who created the model engine, and Takeo Kiuchi, engine development engineer for Senna’s car from 1989 to 1991 and currently Senior VP, Director, CTO of TOYO Corporation, discuss their passion for Senna and model engine building.
An Extraordinary Genius, With a Mischievous Side
Since his Lotus Honda days in 1987 and McLaren Honda era from 1988 to 1992, Senna has driven Honda-powered F1 cars and won the races. How did you view Senna’s performance at the time?
I love cars and was a big fan of Senna, so I followed him in magazines and other media when there was no TV coverage. Once Satoru Nakajima became an F1 racer and TV coverage began in the late 1980s, F1 became a lot more accessible, and I used to sit and watch the races live. It was a very exciting time for people around the world.
He was called the “Prince of the Speed of Sound” in Japan, but in real life, he was a bit of a mischief. He was a genius, though. His use of the accelerator, his “Senna foot,” was so fast it looked like he was shaking it uncontrollably, and he had a sharpened awareness that ordinary people could not understand.
I’ll never forget the test run conducted at the Silverstone Circuit in England. The car Senna was driving came to a sudden stop as it rounded the first turn. I looked at him thinking, “What’s going on?” Senna walked to me and said, “The crank bearings are starting to seize. I stopped the car before it broke, so please check it.”
I thought there was no way he could know that the bearings were about to seize, but on inspection, I found that they were really on the verge of seizing up. I took all the measures I could before the next race, but when I asked him how he knew, Senna said, “The sound coming from the exhaust changed.”
He never forced the car. He couldn’t. Instead, he sharpened all his senses and thought about how he could make the car go faster.
Ayrton Senna (left) . The Brazilian racing driver who won three F1 world championships, Ayrton Senna made his F1 debut in 1984 with British team Tallman, and went on to drive for Lotus, McLaren, and Williams. He passed away at the young age of 34 due to a racing accident at the San Marino Grand Prix in 1994.
At that time, Honda teams were always winning. They dominated the podium positions, and the focus of racing was how to win, because winning was expected, or the Senna-Prost battles [between teammates].
Develop a car that keeps on winning if difficult. We didn’t know how much we had to improve the performance to be able to win the next race, and under such pressure, we were sometimes asked, “Can you make a car that wins, but less decisively?”
Takeo Kiuchi, currently Senior VP, Director, CTO of TOYO Corporation. Whilst at Honda, Kiuchi was engaged in engine development, joined the racing team as Senna’s engineer from 1989 to 1991, and became the team principal of Honda F1 in 2003 during Honda’s third F1 era (2000 to 2008).
Tadashi Sasaki, President of Kusaka Engineering. Sasaki worked on the model engine of Senna’s F1 car.
Senna passed away at the San Marino Grand Prix. How do you recall that time?
I saw the accident on TV and screamed. After that, I kept on watching the extended TV coverage until dawn, but he was gone. After that, I was so shocked that I couldn’t watch F1 for a while.
At that time, Honda had already withdrawn from F1 for about a year, and he had left the team. On the day of the accident, I was on leave and back at home in Yamagata, so it didn’t feel real. If it had been while we were still working together, I would have refused to come to work because I was so shocked.
In any case, he came out of nowhere, whipped the world into a frenzy, and then vanished. He was a legendary racer.
The 1990 MP4/5B’s naturally aspirated engine was developed following the ban on turbo engines from 1989.
More details on the legendary McLaren Honda MP4/5B
Honda | Honda Racing Gallery | F1 Second Era | McLaren Honda MP4/5B (alt-style.co.jp, Japanese language)
Reproducing Details Down to Burn Colors to Texture Feel
In 2024, the decision was made to create a 1/6 scale model of the MP4/5B’s engine (RA100E), to be exhibited at the 2025 Tokyo Auto Salon (TAS). How was the model developed?
There was a special exhibition at the AUTOMOBILE COUNCIL event held in Makuhari (Chiba Prefecture) in spring, titled “30 years since Ayrton Senna’s passing: Memories of a genius.” On the way there, at the Suzuka Parking Area (Mie Prefecture) on the Shin-Meishin Expressway, the car in which Senna won the F1 world championship in 1990 was on display, with the engine exposed. I was so happy that I posted on the company’s Facebook page that day, “It's 30 years since his passing, and I want to build this engine!”
Later that day, Honda asked me to make a model of Senna’s engine as 2024 was also the 60th anniversary since Honda’s first F1 participation. It was a coincidence, but I was really happy.
Briefly, how were you involved in developing the model engine?
I have loved cars since I was a kid, and have been building models since kindergarten. In 2010, I started a company that manufactures and develops delineators (pavement markers), but the following year business plummeted due to an earthquake. As a new business to keep the company going, I made an illuminated emblem for a car I was driving at the time, which began my involvement with cars.
Later, I was asked if I would make a miniature car to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Nissan Skyline GT-R. I answered that I wanted to make a model engine instead, as famous cars have famous engines, and they accepted. From there, I worked on models for Nissan, Mazda, Subaru, Toyota, and many other companies, and finally I was able to work with Honda.
What is most important in making model engines?
Model of Senna’s F1 engine. Sasaki spared no effort in reproducing details such as the octopus tentacle-like exhaust pipes and even the color of the burn marks due to heat.
Although this model is made out of resin, the real engine is cast metal. The exhaust system is silver before the engine is fired up, but with use, the heat is transferred to the exhaust system, causing this burnt color. There is an order in which heat is transferred to the pipes, so to express the way the heat is transferred, the burnt color is made darker at the curves because heat accumulates there. I was very particular about the coloring of these details.
These exhaust pipes are all designed to be the same length, but can only look this way if each pipe is shaped individually. They can’t touch each other, so every detail is made by hand.
This model really expresses the racing engines we were involved with. The feel of the Aluminum cast looks real. This is really well balanced.
Thank you. I determined the size to best balance detail and space taken, and took care with which details to emphasize, balancing visibility and realism.
Models are designed to be stand-alone products. We pursued the ultimate in performance, but as an engineer, I wanted people to see the engine as a stand-alone product as well, and have people really appreciate it. In this sense, I really felt empathy with Mr. Sasaki’s dedication to creating model engines for people to see.
World-First? Recreating the Soul of the Engineers’ Never-Ending Passion for Challenges
What is your passion for engines?
I decided to join Honda, which had declared it would focus on electronic control development, because I could make the most of my studies. I wasn’t interested in cars or engines to begin with, and when I saw the chaotic Monaco Grand Prix with the cars that looked like cigars at that time, I thought “car racing is dangerous.”
But the beauty of this exhaust manifold [collects exhaust gases into one pipe] is unbelievable. The engine with symmetrical octopus-like pipes is compact despite being a V10. It looks a bit rough because a lot has been carved off the minimize weight, but I really wanted to express the first naturally aspirated engine after the turbo era ended.
Making models and engines is similar. I was not particular about engines or cars, but I had one policy: If I was going to take on a challenge, I wanted to make the world’s best and first.
Since engines are built in relation to the chassis [body and framework], we had to work within constraints such as size and weight, while also keeping costs down and continuing to win races.
When Senna, who was nervous before a race, threw out the race analysis data that our young team members had created, I yelled at him, “You’re not getting our engines!” That was how serious we all were.
Model making is the same as making an actual engine: we look at the photos, measure the dimensions, make prototypes, and then combine them. In addition to pursuing realism, like it would actually work, I believe that my mission is to infuse the spirit of the developers into the model, so I want everyone who sees it to understand how Honda engines are amazing, and for people who were involved in the engine development to recall what it was like.
I also place importance on the inevitability of “Why now?” which is why I am very honored to be able to make this model engine at this time. Furthermore, Mr. Kiuchi (who worked on the engine’s development) is a person I admire, so I am very happy to hear his story too.
Thank you.
Lastly, what are your expectations for Honda in the future?
When I was at Honda R&D, I was often asked, “Is this a world-first?” If I said no, I was scolded and they would say, “Don’t bring me that kind of thing.” So, from now on, I want Honda to continue to focus on being the first and best in the world, whether it be technology, how to work, or anything else. I think this is what is necessary for a small country like Japan to be equals with the rest of the world.
I hope that Honda will continue to preserve and pass on the know-how and technological capabilities it has accumulated through developing internal combustion engines, and continue to apply the technologies cultivated in F1 to mass-produced vehicles. For me, F1 equals Honda. I look forward to the future of Honda and F1.
Thank you for your time.
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I made my F1 engineer debut at the 1987 Belgian Grand Prix, when Mansell and Senna crashed. After the race I saw them fighting behind the pits, and I thought, “This is a wild world.”