Honda Celebrates 50 Years of Racing with Commemorative Webpage

In celebration of the company’s 50 years of participation in World Championship racing, Honda Motor Company Ltd. has launched a commemorative webpage loaded with all sorts of cool historical photos, videos, wallpapers, and even downloadable ringtones of past Honda Grand Prix racebikes. Everything from a copy of company founder Soichiro Honda’s written declaration to Honda employees of his intent to enter the 1955 Isle of Man TT and begin the company’s ascent in world racing, to photos and videos of the 990cc RC211V MotoGP machine, are included. It’s an interesting chronological pictorial narrative of the Honda’s involvement—and technological achievements—in Grand Prix racing.

While the numerous videos don’t have any narrative dialogue and are mostly moving panoramic studio shots of the bikes, the neat aspect is that they all include sound clips of each bike in action. Of particular interest to hard-core racing fans would be the F1-like whipping exhaust note of the ’79 NR500 oval piston four-stroke (its lack of flywheel mass meant that the engine needed to be constantly revved in order to keep from stalling), or the hornet’s nest shrill of Freddie Spencer’s ’85 NSR500 V-four two-stroke, or the tonal scream of the 1966 six-cylinder 250cc RC166 racing machine. The downloadable ringtones obviously include these great sounds.

Some of the photo and wallpaper libraries aren’t hugely expansive, but there’s still tons of great shots of past Grand Prix stars who helped Honda’s long involvement in the sport.