Honda turns 50 - automobile manufacturer's anniversary

Automotive Industries, Sept, 1998 by Lindsay Brooke

Highlights of a half-century of raising the art of the piston engine, and creating a global automotive powerhouse.

Perhaps it's ironic that Soichiro Honda was the son of a blacksmith, considering how his company has taught the world a few things about making horsepower over the last 50 years. From a tiny clip on engine to propel bicycles in austere, late 1940s Japan, to domination of the world's motorcycle industry in the 1960s, to an enviable string of Formula i car world championships in the 1980s, to its leadership in low-emission powerplants in 1998, Honda has been first-and-foremost an engine maker. And the company still believes it is so today, even as it steps beyond the realm of reciprocating power, into the future promise of fuel cells and electric drive.

Honda's history is remarkable because the company has achieved so much so fast, often surprising its older, larger rivals in Japan and the West. While Detroit was grappling with crude crankcase-emissions devices, and struggling to build engines that didn't leave an oily blotch on your garage floor, Hondas were revving beyond 20,000 rpm on the world's Grand Prix circuits. Race wins helped sell humble production bikes to eager customers worldwide, and the huge sales of models like the 50cc Super Cub and 250cc Hawk, in mm, funded the racing program. Back in Japan, armies of engineers applied lessons learned in combustion, bearings, lubrication, casting, materials, and many other technologies.

By the mid-'60s, Honda was moving like a Saturn V rocket on lift-off. And the young engineers were already developing the company's first small cars and trucks. Then came rototillers, generators, outboard motors, lawn mowers and all-terrain vehicles and of course, widening ranges of more powerful and sophisticated cars and bikes. All were built using processes, and with a level of quality, that made Honda products the benchmarks in their markets.

A self-taught mechanic and engineer, Soichiro Honda ran a service garage and manufactured piston rings before World War II. He built and raced a modified Ford V-B (replica shown) on local dirt tracks, 50 years before his company launched its first supercar, the Acura NSX.

After the war, Japan's acute need for low-cost transportation spurred him to build his first 50cc engine for bicycles. He incorporated Honda Motor Co., Ltd. in 1948, building his first complete motorcycle. With close friend Takeo Fujisawa as the "business brains" of the company,

Honda enlisted 13,000 bicycle shops in Japan as Honda dealers. This move, combined with a decently reliable product, catapulted the company forward. By 1957, Honda had become Japan's largest motorcycle-maker -- and set its sights on the world.

Honda entrusted his company's U.S. fortunes to Kihachiro Kawashima, who believed the fledgling firm could sell 7,500 motorcycles per month -- at a time when 6,000 units per year was considered healthy for BSA or Triumph. Kawashima opened a Los Angeles office and sold 200 bikes in the U.S. in 1959. Soon came Honda's brilliant "You Meet the Nicest People on a Honda" campaign, created by Gray Advertising. Along with hugely popular models and an enthusiastic dealer network, it helped fuel Honda's boom -- U.S. sales in 1963 topped 100,000 units, more than all other makes combined. And the growth continued.

Perhaps Honda's greatest engine achievement was bringing 4-valves-per-cylinder long used in racing and aircraft, but shunned by Western bike and car makers -- into mainstream use. The concept was first employed on Honda's first 125cc twin-cylinder GP bikes of 1959, then evolved on subsequent 50cc twin-cylinder, 125cc 5-cylinder, 250cc and 350cc 6-cylinder and 500cc 4-cylinder racers, and the company's early F1 car engines. Four-valve layouts eliminated two critical barriers to high-rpm reliability -- valve and valve-spring breakage. Today, Honda believes they're a necessity for efficient combustion and cleaner emissions.

Honda's 750cc Four took motorcycling by storm when it was introduced in 1969. It launched the era of the transversely-mounted, inline 4-cylinder engine that's still common in Superbikes today. Compared with the dazzling GP racers that preceded it, the big CB750 was very conventional: two valves per cylinder, sohc, automotive-type plain hearings and modest 9:1 compression. It had everything -- 67 hp, 125 mph top speed, four snarly exhausts, an electric starter and motorcycling's first production hydraulic disc brake. Best of all, it could be had in 1970 for $1,495. Over 61,000 were sold in the U.S. alone from 1969 to '71, and it remained in production through 1981.

Honda continues to balance its high-performance heritage with a strong environmental ethos. Its Zero-Level Emissions Vehicle engine (ZLEV), still in the prototype stage, is claimed to produce one-tenth the hydrocarbons, and a fraction of the CO and NOx emissions, of California's stringent Ultra-Low Emissions standard. The key is advanced dual-catalysts and powerful engine management, but the catch is that it's fully efficient only on low-sulfur gasoline. Honda promises production by 2000. The founder would've been proud.