- 24 Feb 11, 19:42#240870
I was looking at some vintage snaps of John Surtees I'd found online and I came across this one from the 1968 GP of Italy:
What caught my eye was not Surtees but the Japanese chap to his right. That is none other than Yoshio Nakamura. Nakamura-san was the manager of Honda's first F-1 team. He had designed a couple of early 1960s roadsters for Honda and was heavily involved with designing this car, the RA300.
The RA300 had the distinction of winning its inaugural race (1967 Italian GP) despite leading only its final lap. It was campaigned two seasons without another victory and remains the only car ever to win its first GP and on the only lap it would ever lead.
I love finding gems like these because the significance of a lot of these people wasn't understood and historical snaps of them were not properly safeguarded. I love the pack of fags in his shirt pocket. I just wish we could see more of the face of the other Japanese fellow he's talking to. The character "Izo Yamura" (played by Toshirô Mifune) in the 1966 movie "Grand Prix" was based on Nakamura-san. Nakamura-san wasn't flash like Gurney or Shelby or Ferrari or but he was very influential, not just to Honda but to the sport of F1 as well.
Nakamura-san was schooled as an aerodynamic engineer and worked for Nakajima Airplane during WWII. He headed a project to design an intercontinental bomber to use against the USA but they were unable to "invent" all the new technology it would have needed before Japan was nuked into submission. He remained employed by Honda until the age of 70.
The RA30X had a Lola chassis, earning it the nickname "Hondola." The engine was a 3-litre 48-valve V-12 designed by Shoichiro Irimajiri, who also directed the design of the Honda CBX 6-cylinder motorcycle. The RA300 produced somewhere between 400 and 440 bhp and was prone to spinning the tires @100 mph in third gear.
What caught my eye was not Surtees but the Japanese chap to his right. That is none other than Yoshio Nakamura. Nakamura-san was the manager of Honda's first F-1 team. He had designed a couple of early 1960s roadsters for Honda and was heavily involved with designing this car, the RA300.
The RA300 had the distinction of winning its inaugural race (1967 Italian GP) despite leading only its final lap. It was campaigned two seasons without another victory and remains the only car ever to win its first GP and on the only lap it would ever lead.
I love finding gems like these because the significance of a lot of these people wasn't understood and historical snaps of them were not properly safeguarded. I love the pack of fags in his shirt pocket. I just wish we could see more of the face of the other Japanese fellow he's talking to. The character "Izo Yamura" (played by Toshirô Mifune) in the 1966 movie "Grand Prix" was based on Nakamura-san. Nakamura-san wasn't flash like Gurney or Shelby or Ferrari or but he was very influential, not just to Honda but to the sport of F1 as well.
Nakamura-san was schooled as an aerodynamic engineer and worked for Nakajima Airplane during WWII. He headed a project to design an intercontinental bomber to use against the USA but they were unable to "invent" all the new technology it would have needed before Japan was nuked into submission. He remained employed by Honda until the age of 70.
The RA30X had a Lola chassis, earning it the nickname "Hondola." The engine was a 3-litre 48-valve V-12 designed by Shoichiro Irimajiri, who also directed the design of the Honda CBX 6-cylinder motorcycle. The RA300 produced somewhere between 400 and 440 bhp and was prone to spinning the tires @100 mph in third gear.
"I'll bet ya a hundred and five thousand dollars you go to sleep before I do."
--Dobbsie
--Dobbsie
