Today, Honda celebrates half a century since it first entered premier class World Grand Prix racing, by photographing its original racing machine, the RC181, alongside its current MotoGP contestant, the RC213V at Twin Ring Motegi.
The photo session saw MotoGP’s current top riders Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa from Repsol Honda Team together face to face with the championship-winning bike from half a century ago.
The extremely powerful RC181, powered by an air-cooled 4-stroke 4-valve straight 4-cylinder DOHC engine, debuted in the opening round of the German Grand Prix, to claim its first victory with a dominating 26-second lead.
It went on to win 5 of the 9 grand prix in the season, not only giving Honda the manufacturer’s title, but contributing to Honda’s clean sweep of all five classes (50cc, 125cc, 250cc, 350cc, and 500cc).
Honda entered World Grand Prix racing for the first time in 1959, in the 125cc class at the Isle of Man TT. Two years later, Honda claimed its first victory, and its first championship title. In 1966, Honda forayed into the premier class (which was the 500cc class at the time).
The Twin Ring Motegi will be hosting round 15 of the the FIM MotoGP World Championship, the Grand Prix of Japan in the coming weekend.
News Source: Honda Press release
