Honda

History of Honda

THE EARLY YEARS
Soichiro Honda got his first job at a Tokyo auto repair shop in 1922 after only eight years of schooling. As a 15 year-old boy from a small town, he was glad to see as many as 10 cars on a busy day. He was hired as a Mechanic Assistant. But his job turned out to be a "baby-sitter"for the owner's young children. Honda had dreams of being an expert auto mechanic, and he never got that chance. Being frustrated, he packed his bags, quit his job, and left the big city. When the shop needed help 6 months later, they call Honda back to assist with auto repair, finally he got the opportunity he was looking for. Then an earthquake flattens Tokyo, sending all the repair shop mechanics back home, except for Honda and a senior mechanic. This proves to an excellent opportunity to receive a thorough one to one training. To Honda's fortune, the owner of auto repair shop loves auto racing, and encourage Honda to used his free time to a night to build race cars. So he did, using an old 8.0 liter V8 fighter airplane engine to power his car. The car had a maximum 100hp @ 1,400 rpm and wooden spoke wheels.

Honda would continue to experiment with various designs and concepts. He would test these ideas every chance he had at the local racetrack. These includes titling the engine for better weight distribution in oval tracks, supercharging, heat conducting metals to dissipate heat from the engine, and was the first to add an auxiliary radiator to improve cooling. The result was an engine that did not blow up in a race. Remember this was still the 1920s. In Honda's first race in Japan on July 1936, he led with an incredible speed of 75mph only to tangle with another car near final lap and crashed. Honda was thrown from the car, his face crushed, left shoulder dislocated, and both wrists broken. Although Honda did not win, he was given a trophy for setting the average speed record (75mph) in Japan. A record not broke until 10 years after World War II.