Have a look at this engine for a moment, does it look a little strange? Where does it come from, you may ask? Well, read on (caveat being that there is a lot of car racing history in this article)
In 1960, after years of the existing Formula One regulations, the FIA decreed that the cars were getting too fast (where have we heard that before?) and so, from the start of 1961, Formula One engines would be restricted to 1.5 litres, unsupercharged (just in case anybody got some fancy ideas). At the time this seemed pretty radical but the old regulations limited capacity to 2.5 litres so it wasn’t that different, really. British cars, powered by the ubiquitous Coventry Climax 4 cylinder engine were ruling the roost and it wasn’t a great surprise that the ruling body began looking for a way to level the playing field and make Ferrari the dominant force again (where have we heard THAT before?)
And it was no surprise that the beginning of the 1961 season saw Ferrari debut their new car, the delicious “shark nose” model with a brand new 1.5L V6 and promptly wipe the floor with the British “garagiste” marques who struggled all season with a little 1.5L 4 cylinder engine that had previously seen duty as an F2 motor. This was a stop-gap motor until the Climax V8 arrived in the following year.
But a new contender emerged right out of left field in 1964 with the arrival, late in the season, of Honda, out of Japan. It’s fair to say that most F1 experts would already have been aware of what Honda was doing in the motorcycle racing arena with 2,3,4 and 5 cylinder bikes of enormous complexity and power, but it was a shock when the little RA271E arrived, driven by a relatively unknown American sports car competitor called Ronnie Bucknum.
In most respects the car was conventional but that conventionality stopped when you looked under the engine cover. Powering the new car was a brand new water-cooled 1.5L V12 DOHC four valve per cylinder engine! (see picture at the top of the article.) AND, it was mounted transversely in the rear of the car with the power take-off from the gearbox going directly to the half shafts.
As already noted, the experts were already aware of Honda’s predilection for high-revving multi-cylinder power plants but, even allowing for that, the car was a big shock, especially as it seemed to be filled with promise.
Despite only having produced their first road car one year earlier, Honda jumped right in and handed everyone a technological “How’s THAT?” and moved the goal posts. The car competed in 3 races in the 1964 season where the title was won by Ferrari’s John Surtees but the next model, the RA272, won a Grand Prix for Honda in 1965, an extraordinary effort.
It’s worth looking a little deeper into the engine, though, because this is always where Honda is moving the goal posts.
It was, as stated, a V12, so that meant each bank of 6 cylinders measured only 750cc in capacity. Later other manufacturers of road bikes would produce a 750cc 6, but they were nothing like this thing.
The clutch, mounted, motorcycle-style, on the side of the engine, looks totally flimsy given the task it had to perform but super Honda engineering and experience in high-revving motorcycle engines and gearboxes was a huge advantage.
The colour picture shows the engine without exhausts, the B&W shot hints at how complex the snake pit of exhaust pipes was. With no requirement to meet any mandatory noise limits we can only imagine what a howl those exhausts would have produced.
The engine produced a claimed 230bhp (170KW) at 13000 RPM. It was easily the most powerful engine in an F1 car of the time and the motor would rev to 14000 when required. Mind you, if you wanted to GET that maximum power, you had to flirt very close to that upper rev limit to get it.
The start of 1966 saw the abandonment of the 1.5 non-supercharged formula, it being replaced by a 3 Litre capacity limit. Honda answered with a more conventional layout V12 and continued to win races. The change in formula, however, mirrored in many ways the start of the 1.5 formula with Australia’s Jack Brabham being first out of the block with a new engine, the Repco Brabham V8 and he won the 1966 title with his team-mate, New Zealand’s Denny Hulme, winning the 1967 title, also in a Brabham.
Of all of the things that this article highlights, it points out the fact that this technological leap by Honda, took place SIXTY years ago! After 1964 no F1 fan would ever be able to say, “Honda, who are they?”
