HONDA Brand History
Honda was founded by Soichiro Honda, a mechanic who managed to
develop his own design for piston rings back in 1938. At first he tried
to sell the design to Toyota but they declined, which determined him to
start his own company. So, ten years later, in 1948 Honda Motor was
officially founded.
In their early days, Honda produced scooters and motorcycles and their
first model was the A-Type, in 1947. Some don't consider this a
full-fledged motorcycle because the company was not founded yet. To make
everybody happy, the first bike under the Honda brand was released in
1949 and was called Dream D-Type. It produced around 3 horse and had a
full 98cc.
After this came their first big seller, the 146cc, OHV, four-stroke
E-Type Dream which reached a production capacity of 130 units per day by
October 1951. One year later, they made the F-Type, which had a 50cc
two-stroke engine which took over the two-wheeler Japanese market
producing 6,500 units per month.
In 1953 they made the J-Type Benly, in 1954 the 200cc scooter Juno, and
in 1957 Honda introduced their first twin-cylinder bike, the legendary
250cc OHC four-stroke C70 Dream. The same model was altered in 1958 by
fitting it with an electric starter and renaming it C71.
The same year, 1958, came the C100 Super Cub which became the world's
most successful motorcycle because it was cheap and practical. The first
Honda bike to be available in Europe was the 250cc C72 Dream in 1959.
Honda also played a big role in motorsports and they began their racing
activities in 1954 when Honda Racing Corporation (HRC) was founded. In
1959, five Honda bikes entered the Isle of Man TT race (very prestigious
at that time). They did not win anything until 1961 when Mike Hailwood
won the first Grand Prix ever for Honda in the 125 and 250 cc classes.
Over the years Honda registered a lot of wins in the Grand Prix races
but it wasn't until 1983 that they didn't win their first 500cc Grand
Prix World Championship with Freddie Spencer. They won the MotoGP for
the second time just last year, in 2006, after Nicky Hayden rode a Honda
RC211V.
A landmark in Honda history was the year 1968, when they unveiled the
750cc bike with four cylinders called CB750F. A year later, Honda
introduced the CB750 which was the vehicle that had the best
acceleration at that time and it could reach 120 mph.
As for the 1970's, Honda continued making affordable but reliable bikes
and the most notable models of the 70s are CB350F, XR75, CB750A (the
first modern motorcycle with an automatic transmission). In the 1980's
Honda became more aware of the American market and founded the Honda
Research of America in September 1984.
In the 1990's the Japanese manufacturer was more busy handling their
cars and racing segment and they weren't very preoccupied by their
motorcycles division. Their latest model is the CBR600RR7 model which
has a 600cc Dual Sequential Fuel Injected inline-4 engine with the
smallest dimensions in its class.
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