50 Fun Facts About Honda

In which year did Soichiro Honda found the Honda Technical Research Institute?

He funded it by selling the remains of his piston-ring firm for ¥450,000 after the war.

What did Soichiro Honda's prewar company Tōkai Seiki make for Toyota?

Toyota dropped the first batch for poor quality, then took a 40% stake once the product was fixed.

Why was Honda's first engine, the A-Type, nicknamed the "Bata Bata"?

It began as a copy of surplus Tohatsu radio-generator engines bolted onto bicycles.

Which business partner handled finance and marketing alongside Soichiro Honda until 1973?

The two stepped down together in October 1973 after a partnership that began in 1949.

What was Honda's first production automobile, launched in August 1963?

Its 356 cc engine slotted it into Japan's cheap kei tax bracket; the S500 sports car followed two months later.

Which Honda is the most-produced motor vehicle in history, passing 100 million units in 2017?

In continuous production since 1958, it is an underbone bike with a single-cylinder engine of 49 to 124 cc.

Which slogan fronted the 1960s US motorcycle campaign made with Grey Advertising?

It pushed back on the outlaw-biker stereotype; by the end of 1963 alone Honda had sold 90,000 bikes.

Which luxury brand did Honda launch in March 1986, the first from a Japanese automaker?

Its Legend flagship prompted Toyota and Nissan to answer with luxury marques of their own.

Which 1990 Honda sports car was the first production car with an all-aluminium semi-monocoque?

Its name began as NS-X, for New Sports car eXperimental, and Ayrton Senna gave input in development.

What does the robot name ASIMO stand for?

It grew out of the experimental E-series and P-series walking robots Honda built from 1986.

How tall was Honda's ASIMO robot?

Honda judged that height ideal for working door knobs and light switches; it weighed 54 kg.

In what year did ASIMO make its last active appearance before Honda retired it?

Honda shifted its effort to remote-controlled, avatar-style robots.

Where are the HondaJet's two turbofan engines unusually mounted?

The layout frees up cabin space and cuts drag; the fuselage is composite and the wing aluminium.

In which US city is the Honda Aircraft Company based?

The proof-of-concept jet first flew there on 3 December 2003.

Designer Michimasa Fujino said the HondaJet's nose was inspired by what?

Honda began sketching the jet in 1997 and finally delivered the first one in December 2015.

At which 1965 race did Honda take its first Formula One victory?

Honda had entered F1 in 1964, building both engine and chassis just a year after its first road cars.

Which driver won the 2021 Formula One title with Honda power at Red Bull?

Honda formally left after that season but kept supplying Red Bull's power units through 2025.

Which team did Honda rejoin Formula One with as a works power-unit partner in 2026?

Honda's 1980s glory years came as engine supplier to Williams and McLaren, with six constructors' titles.

In which year did Honda win the Indianapolis 500 for the first time?

From 2006 to 2011 Honda was the IndyCar series' only engine supplier.

Which famous Japanese race track, opened in 1962, does Honda own?

Honda also built Twin Ring Motegi in 1997; both are run by its Honda Mobilityland arm.

Which rider gave Honda its first Grand Prix motorcycle wins in 1961?

Honda had first entered the Isle of Man TT in 1959 with five bikes.

Who won Honda's first 500 cc Grand Prix world championship in 1983?

He rode the NS500, Honda's first two-stroke racer, introduced the previous season.

What was unusual about the cylinders of Honda's 1979 NR500 racing bike?

Each "race-track" cylinder had eight valves and two connecting rods to fight the dominant two-strokes; the experiment failed.

Which 1969 Honda is regarded as the first motorcycle to be called a "superbike"?

Its transverse inline-four layout became the template for the Universal Japanese Motorcycle.

In which Ohio town were Gold Wing touring motorcycles assembled from 1980 to 2010?

Production moved to Kumamoto, Japan, in 2011 using tooling shipped from the American plant.

In which year did the first-generation Civic go on sale?

It launched as a two-door fastback in July with a 1,169 cc transverse engine and front-wheel drive.

Which rival is the only Japanese nameplate to outlast the Civic continuously in North America?

The Corolla arrived in 1966, six years before its Honda rival.

According to Honda, what does "CR-V" stand for?

The "Compact Recreational Vehicle" reading came from a British review that Honda republished.

Which Honda was the first commercial hybrid car sold in the US, beating the Prius by a month?

Its 70 mpg highway rating made it the most fuel-efficient mass-produced car of its day; only about 18,000 sold.

Which Honda pickup won Motor Trend's Truck of the Year for 2006?

The redesigned Civic took Car of the Year the same year, a rare double for one maker.

The S2000 roadster was launched in April 1999 to celebrate which Honda milestone?

Its name refers to the two-litre engine, which made about 124 hp per litre, a record for a naturally aspirated car until 2010.

Which Honda engineer invented the VTEC variable valve system?

Unlike ordinary variable timing, VTEC swaps between whole camshaft profiles to change valve lift.

The boxy Element's styling was inspired by what structure?

Its roofline was arched to echo the curve of a surfboard, and its side doors opened clamshell-style.

The folding Motocompo scooter was designed to fit in the trunk of which Honda?

Sold only as a factory add-on in Japan from 1981 to 1983, it is the smallest scooter Honda ever built.

Which British ska band starred in the Japanese TV ads for the Motocompo and City?

Only 53,369 of the trunk bikes sold, far short of Honda's hoped-for 10,000 a month.

Honda's 2003 "Cog" advert built a chain-reaction machine from parts of which model?

The parts came from two of only six hand-built pre-production cars, and the ad took 100 takes.

Which radio storyteller voiced the tagline "Isn't it nice when things just... work?"

He returned for the 2005 "Impossible Dream" ad, which ends with "I couldn't have put it better myself."

Who voiced "Mr. Opportunity", the animated pitchman in Honda's US clearance ads?

He signed off with "I'm Mr. Opportunity, and I'm knockin'" before rapping on the TV screen.

Which engine layout has Honda famously never built for a passenger vehicle?

When US dealers pushed for one in the 1990s, American Honda reportedly mailed one a shipment of V8 vegetable juice.

Which NHL team plays at the Honda Center?

Honda paid $60 million in 2006 for naming rights to the arena once called the Arrowhead Pond.

In which Tokyo ward is Honda's global headquarters?

Its shares trade on the Tokyo and New York exchanges, among others.

In which California city is American Honda Motor Company based?

Honda's innovation group, Honda Xcelerator, sits separately in Mountain View near Silicon Valley.

Which English town hosted the Honda car plant put on a two-day week after the 2011 Japan tsunami?

Parts from Japan dried up, so the plant halved output until the end of May.

In 2013 Honda became the first Japanese automaker to achieve what in the United States?

It shipped out 108,705 Honda and Acura vehicles that year while importing 88,357.

Which automaker signed, then abandoned, merger talks with Honda in 2024–25?

The deal would have created the world's third-largest carmaker; it collapsed when Honda proposed making its partner a subsidiary.

Under what brand name are the electric cars from Honda's joint venture with Sony sold?

Sony supplies imaging, sensing and network tech while Honda handles the car manufacturing.

Under what name is the Honda Fit sold in Europe?

The same name covers Oceania, the Middle East, Africa and India; the Americas and Japan keep Fit.

Under what name was the first-generation Odyssey minivan sold in Europe?

Japan's 1990s economic slump kept it small and based on the Accord platform; Americans wanted bigger.

Soichiro Honda injured which body part in a 1936 crash while racing a turbocharged Ford?

He quit racing after the crash at Tamagawa Speedway, which also injured his brother.

What did young Soichiro Honda use to forge his family seal on school reports?

He was caught when he made stamps for classmates without realising the names had to be mirror-imaged.