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Honda: History

An Early Honda Motor

The man behind Honda is Soichiro Honda, the visionary engineer son of a blacksmith. His dream was to produce an affordable form of transporatation that would be available to everyone.

After WWII public transportation in Japan was very overcrowded and petrol severely restricted. Honda came across a job lot of 500 post-war surplus two stroke engines that were originally designed to power electric generators. These were adapted for attachment to custom bicycle frames and were further adapted to run on turpentine due to the gasoline shortages of the day.

These early Honda motorised bicycles were very popular and the stock of surplus two stroke engines soon ran out. Using the surplus motor as a blueprint Honda designed and built his own 50cc engine. This was incorporated into the first complete Honda motorised bicycle, the A-type, commonly known as the Chimney due to the amount of smoke and the smell of turpentine that they produced.

In 1948 Honda introduced a 90cc version of the Chimney, called the B-type. This was followed by the D-type which was Honda first true motorcycle. This model was called 'The Dream' because it fulfilled Soichiro Honda's dream of producing his own, complete motorcycle.

Early Honda S500

Honda continued to develop better and faster motorcycles leading to the devlopment of the C72 in 1959 which was the fastest 250cc motorcycle available at the time. In 1969 Honda won the first of a string of victories at the Isle of Man. Soichiro Honda had always been keen on racing motorcycles and Honda quickly amassed a number of prestigious wins.

It was in the early 1960 that Honda started to develop road cars in Japan. Their first production automobile was the S500 produced in 1963 featuring a 492cc engine. These small vehicles failed to attract attention in the U.S. The first Honda imported into the U.S. was the N600 which was sold in Hawaii in 1969. It's small, 600cc engine and compact size didn't make it very popular with the American market.

1972 Honda Civic

In 1972 Honda introduced the Civic. This coincided with the 1973 energy crisis and the introduction of new emissions laws in the U.S. American car producer took their time in producing vehicles which complied with the new requirements giving Honda the chance to get a foothold in the lucrative American automobile market.

In 1976 Honda introduced the Accord which was immediately very popular. In 1982 Honda established car production plants in the U.S. to produce the Accord.

Honda have continued to carry out innovative development leading to the range of high quality, performance vehicles that are available today.

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