22 Jun 05
I am sitting in a cigar tube made of thin, aluminium alloy. Ahead I can see some old Smiths instruments, their needles flickering as oil and water temperature start to register. Tiny mirrors means I can see almost nothing behind, but I don't need to. Through ear plugs, a thick fireproof balaclava and an Arai helmet I am being deafened by the sound of the most powerful Formula 1 engine of its era.
In all the weeks of planning for this moment, in all the hours of silent contemplation I'd had at 35,000ft on my way to Japan, nothing had prepared me for the sheer sense of occasion, the intimidation, the very real fear that went with becoming the first journalist ever allowed to drive a Honda F1 car. So I sit and wait for the 3-litre, four-cam, 48-valve, 420bhp engine to warm up and, as I do, I try hard not to contemplate what I am about to take on here. I try; but I fail.
It is well known that Honda has for years showcased its talents in the ultimate automotive arena that is F1. Its engines are in the back of this season's BARs and those that were second only to Ferrari in last year's constructor's championships. Nor should we forget that every F1 champion from 1987-91 earned their laurels with Honda power under their right feet. Few would argue that, even given Ferrari's recent successes, that the 1988 McLaren MP4/4 was the most dominant F1 car of all time, winning 15 of the 16 races held that season and fewer still would contest that a large element of that extraordinary success had come courtesy of Honda's V6 turbo motor.
But there is another chapter of Honda F1 cars, one which climaxes on a hot and dusty day in September 1967. Here, in a straight fight at the Italian Grand Prix, a Honda beat the world's best race car constructors - Lotus, Ferrari and Brabham among them - John Surtees winning at an average speed of - get this - over 140mph. He was driving the one and only Honda RA300 ever built and, very shortly now, so will I.
