Precision on Wheels

When Japan's Honda Motor Co. first entered its machines in the big European motorcycle races two years ago, one Western racing buff snorted: "We knew the Japanese made good rickshas, but we didn't know they made motorcycles." Honda's bikes soon blew exhaust fumes in the scoffer's face. Seven of this year's ten international Grand Prix motorcycle races have been run so far, and Honda's machines have lapped the best in Europe. Under the complicated scoring system of motorcycling's Olympics, Honda has piled up 106 points in the 125-cc. class, 55 more than its nearest rival, East Germany's MZ motorcycle. And in the big 250-cc. class, Honda has left its nearest competitor at the starter's flag, 126 to 10.

Europeans are awed by Honda's performance. "It's time British firms copied Japanese know-how," grumped London's Daily Mirror. One British manufacturer took a Honda bike apart, marveled: "It's made like a watch. And it isn't a copy of anything." Basking in such reluctant foreign tributes, Honda in 1960 produced 750,000 machines--20% of total world output--and made pre-tax profits of $14.2 million on sales of $136.5 million. This year's racing successes have obliged Honda to increase production to 85,000 machines a month, boosted the company's stock from 80-c- to 93 1/2-c- a share since May. (On the Tokyo Exchange even the bluest of blue chips sell for under $5.) To handle its newly booming export market--foreign orders for the first half of this year have already outstripped 1960's 22,100 orders from abroad--Honda has recently opened sales branches in the U.S. and West Germany.

Salvage Artist. The man behind Honda's meteoric rise is balding, energetic Soichi Honda, 55. A blacksmith's son, Honda quit school to become an auto mechanic, by 27 had his own garage with 50 helpers. Before World War II, he switched over to manufacturing piston rings, but his business faltered--which he blamed on his own lack of schooling. To salvage his firm, Honda enrolled in a technical school at night, continued to run the business by day. The company soon got on its feet, only to be knocked flat by a U.S. air raid.

In 1949 Honda bought a supply of small surplus motors that had been designed for the portable communications equipment used by the defeated Imperial army, began to adapt the engines to power ordinary bicycles. With Japanese transport facilities still knocked out by the war, the motorized bicycle scored such a hit that Honda soon found himself unable to keep up with demand.

The Labman. On the strength of the bicycle boom, Honda set up the Honda Motor Co. with capital of only $2,778, and five years later began to produce motorcycles. Today Honda Motor Co. is capitalized at $25 million, employs 6,000 workers in its three plants on Japan's main island of Honshu. The Honda family controls 15% of the company's stock, the firm's employees hold another 30%, and the remaining 55% is publicly held.

Affectionately dubbed "Oyaji'' ("Pop") by his employees, Honda spends more time in the research lab than he does at his desk, tests most of the new models* himself at the company's Yamato City testing grounds. He sees no limit to the potential sales of his precision-built machines. "If you produce a good thing, it will be wanted," he says. "And it will be wanted by people in any country."

* In the U.S., Honda sells eight models ranging from a $245, 5-h.p. machine (50 cc., two valves, one cylinder) to a $665, 27.4-h.p. bike (305 cc., eight valves, two cylinders).

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