Honda Trivia
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45 free Honda trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
Honda started in a 16-square-metre shack bolting surplus radio-generator engines onto bicycles. Today it is the largest motorcycle maker on earth, builds more internal combustion engines than anyone, flies its own business jet and has won Formula One titles with three different eras of engine. Its founder forged his school seal from a bicycle pedal and never finished engineering school. These 45 questions cover the whole story: the piston rings Toyota rejected, the Bata Bata, the T360 kei truck, the slogan that sold America on motorcycles, the Super Cub's 100 million units, the Civic and the Corolla, the CR-V's real name, the NSX's aluminium body, the oval-piston NR500, Freddie Spencer and Mike Hailwood, the first Indy 500 win, ASIMO's height and retirement, the HondaJet's shoe-inspired nose, the Motocompo and Madness, the Cog advert's 100 takes, Mr. Opportunity, and the V8 that Honda answered with a case of vegetable juice. Easy ones ask about Acura; hard ones ask who invented VTEC. Every answer is cited to a page we checked, with a short explanation so you learn something even when you miss. Play it solo or print it for a car-club quiz night.
30 of 45 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01After WWII, Honda's new company first fitted surplus generator engines to what?
Bicycles
Bicycles; Honda later built its sales network by getting Japan's bicycle shops to sell its engines and motorbikes.
Q 02What did Soichiro Honda's prewar company Tōkai Seiki make for Toyota?
Piston rings
Piston rings; when his early rings failed, Honda went back to engineering school to learn the science behind them.
Q 03Why was Honda's first engine, the A-Type, nicknamed the "Bata Bata"?
The sound it made
The sound it made; when Honda's supply of surplus Tohatsu engines ran out, he built his own copy, the A-Type.
Q 04Which business partner handled finance and marketing alongside Soichiro Honda until 1973?
Takeo Fujisawa
Takeo Fujisawa; he and Soichiro Honda agreed never to bring their own children into the company.
Q 05What was Honda's first production automobile?
T360 kei truck
T360 kei truck; Honda had been developing sports cars, but a senior executive argued most demand was for work vehicles, so a truck came first.
Q 06Which Honda is the most-produced motor vehicle in history, passing 100 million units in 2017?
Super Cub
Super Cub; it was designed so a soba noodle delivery rider could work it with one hand while balancing a tray in the other.
Q 07Honda's 1960s US ads 'You meet the nicest people on a Honda' set out to counter which image?
The outlaw biker
The outlaw biker; the ads pitched Honda's little step-through as everyday transport for ordinary citizens, not a machine for men in black leather.
Q 08Which luxury brand did Honda launch in March 1986, the first from a Japanese automaker?
Acura
Acura; Honda planned to bring the brand to Japan, but dropped the plan during the 2008 financial crisis.
Q 09Which 1990 Honda sports car was the first production car with an all-aluminium semi-monocoque?
NSX
NSX; after testing a prototype, Formula One champion Ayrton Senna is said to have pushed Honda to stiffen its chassis.
Q 10What does the robot name ASIMO stand for?
Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility
Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility; in 2002 ASIMO rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange.
Q 11Honda sized its ASIMO robot so it could reach what?
Light switches
Light switches; yet the stair-climbing robot was caught on camera toppling down stairs during public demonstrations.
Q 12When ASIMO retired, what did Honda say it would focus on instead?
Avatar robots
Avatar robots, steered by a person from far away; Honda pictures an on-call doctor logging into the nearest one to treat an emergency.
Q 13Where are the HondaJet's two turbofan engines unusually mounted?
On pylons above the wing
On pylons above the wing; moving the engines off the rear fuselage removed their support structure inside, freeing a bigger cabin and cutting drag.
Q 21Which rider won the 250cc world title on Honda's six-cylinder RC166 in both 1966 and 1967?
Mike Hailwood
Mike Hailwood; when Honda quit Grand Prix racing after 1967, he switched to four wheels and went on to race in Formula One.
Q 22Who won Honda's first 500 cc Grand Prix world championship in 1983?
Freddie Spencer
Freddie Spencer; wrist injuries soon cut his career short, and he announced his retirement from Grand Prix racing in 1988.
Q 23What was unusual about the cylinders of Honda's 1979 NR500 racing bike?
They were oval
They were oval, making room for eight valves per cylinder, but the complex four-stroke never won a Grand Prix and Honda switched to two-strokes.
Q 14In which US city is the Honda Aircraft Company based?
Greensboro, North Carolina
Greensboro, North Carolina; Honda Aircraft grew out of a research site Honda set up beside Piedmont Triad International Airport.
Q 15Designer Michimasa Fujino said the HondaJet's nose was inspired by what?
Salvatore Ferragamo shoes
Honda began sketching the jet in 1997 and finally delivered the first one in December 2015.
Q 16At which 1965 race did Honda take its first Formula One victory?
Mexican Grand Prix
Mexican Grand Prix; American driver Richie Ginther led every lap, in only Honda's second season, for his and Honda's first Formula One win.
Q 17Which driver won the 2021 Formula One title with Honda power at Red Bull?
Max Verstappen
Max Verstappen; Honda had already announced in October 2020 that it would quit Formula One after 2021 to focus on carbon neutrality.
Q 18Which team did Honda rejoin Formula One with as a works power-unit partner in 2026?
Aston Martin
Aston Martin; Honda confirmed the works deal in May 2023, drawn back to Formula One by the more sustainable engine rules arriving in 2026.
Q 19Which racing series did Honda alone supply engines for from 2006 to 2011?
IndyCar
IndyCar; both rival engine makers pulled out after 2005, so every car in the field, even at the Indianapolis 500, ran on Honda power.
Q 20Which famous Japanese race track, opened in 1962, does Honda own?
Suzuka Circuit
Suzuka Circuit; Formula One's Japanese Grand Prix moved to rival Fuji Speedway in 2007 and 2008, then returned to Suzuka from 2009.
Q 24Which 1969 Honda is regarded as the first motorcycle to be called a "superbike"?
CB750
CB750; doubting demand, Honda first skipped costly die-cast tooling for its engine cases, until orders flooded in.
Q 25In which Ohio town were Gold Wing touring motorcycles assembled from 1980 to 2010?
Marysville
Marysville; no Gold Wings were built for the 2011 model year while production moved from Ohio to Kumamoto, Japan.
Q 26Which rival is the only Japanese nameplate to outlast the Civic continuously in North America?
Toyota Corolla
Toyota Corolla; it was Japan's best-selling car for over three decades until a Honda, the Fit, finally outsold it in 2002.
Q 27According to Honda, what does "CR-V" stand for?
Comfortable Runabout Vehicle
Comfortable Runabout Vehicle; yet Honda UK's own website reprinted a newspaper review saying the initials stood for Compact Recreational Vehicle.
Q 28Which Honda became the first hybrid car sold in the US, in December 1999?
Insight
Insight; to reach its record fuel economy, Honda made it a light, slippery two-seater with only a small luggage area.
Q 29Which Honda won Motor Trend's Truck of the Year award for 2006?
Ridgeline
Ridgeline; Honda later halted production, then brought the pickup back as an all-new second generation in 2016.
Q 30The S2000 roadster was launched in April 1999 to celebrate which Honda milestone?
50th anniversary
50th anniversary; its S name carried on the tradition of Honda's 1960s S500, S600 and S800 roadsters.