The world's largest motorcycle
manufacturer did not make its first car until
1963, and even then it owed much of its mechanical
underpinnings to the two wheeled variety. Founded
by Soichiro Honda, one of nine children from a
poor family, he was a gifted engineer and astute
businessman. Apprenticed in a car repair shop,
got his first chance to actually drive a car during
the Toyko earthquake of 1923, then ferrying people
and supplies around the devastated city.
Dabbled
with racing cars, but his big break came after
World War 2 when he realised that few could afford
a car, and so turned his attention to the manufacture
of ex-military two-stoke engines fitted to bicycles.
Manufactured their first motorcycle, the Dream,
in 1949, which was fitted with a four-stoke engine.
Launched the chain driven 500 sports car in 1963,
subsequent iterations becoming more conventional,
and more popular.
