Posted May 24, 2006

The Honda RC161

Big Red's first world-beater

Story by Lance Oliver
Photos by Bill Andrews

Here's a motorcycle that carried its namesake company from zero to world domination in three years.

This particular Honda RC161 also recorded Honda's first big victory in the United States by winning the U.S. Grand Prix 250cc class in 1961, according to a letter from company founder Soichiro Honda that accompanied the motorcycle when it was donated in 1964 to The Henry Ford Museum.

The RC161 will be on display in the Hall of Fame area of the Museum for one year, in recognition of company founder Soichiro Honda.

Today, with Honda being a worldwide brand and a racing power, it's easy to forget just how badly the odds were stacked against Honda back in 1959 when Soichiro Honda took the company racing in international competition. Japan was still recovering from World War II. Honda didn't even have a decent paved test track. Yet the company sent a team to the 1959 Isle of Man TT races and finished as high as sixth. Every bike finished under its own power.

The four-cylinder RC161 carried the Honda name into competition the following year. But 1961 was the breakthrough year.

In just the company's third year of international competition, Honda won 18 of the 22 races in the 125cc and 250cc Grand Prix classes. It was the same year, coincidentally, that the legendary Mike Hailwood began racing for Honda.

"This was a highly sophisticated machine to come out of Japan at that time," says Museum Executive Director Mark Mederski. "It demonstrated Honda's serious intent to compete worldwide, both on the race track and in the showrooms."

The RC161's four-cylinder, double overhead-cam design led the way for the four-stroke four-cylinder engines that would come to represent the norm in high-performance motorcycles.

Few RC161s survived, but for the next year, you can see this rare bike on display at the Motorcycle Hall of Fame Museum.

© 2006, Motorcycle Hall of Fame Museum