Fukumi Takatake – sometimes written Fukumi Kotake, born in Fukuoka, December 3, 1944 – at the wheel of the works Honda R800 during the 1969 Suzuka 500km, he finished second outright and first in the R1 class.
A very attractive car(s) new to me, the machine was of spaceframe construction, the design seemingly inspired by an F3 Brabham Honda owned by the Suzuka circuit, itself owned by Honda of course.
As the rear body-up photograph of the R800 shows below, its tiny air-cooled engine – mounted north-south at the front of the S600-800 roadies – was mounted conventionally in the rear of the sports-racer.
The cutaway drawing of the R1300 below – the engine was mounted east-west in the Honda 9 – shows the engine-transmission unit is mounted transversely at the rear as was also the case on Honda’s stunning, successful 1964-65 1.5-litre V12 RA271-272 GP machines. The suspension, brake, wheels and other specifications are otherwise 1960s period typical. See here for a feature on the Honda 1.5-litre GOP cars; https://primotipo.com/2014/12/12/honda-ra271272-1-5-litre-v12-19645-gp-cars/
The R800 was built by Honda RSC the competition arm of Honda. The Racing Services Club was formed in 1965, then became the Racing Service Center and finally in 1982 morphed into Honda Racing Corporation. The car made its race debut that Suzuka 500km weekend and was Honda’s response to the Coniglio and Macransa (later Dome) Honda S-Series based kit/racing cars.
Shortly after the Suzuka ’69 500km race, Honda upgraded the machine by fitment of the 1.3-litre, air-cooled, four-cylinder engine fitted to their then new Honda 7/9 Coupe, a vastly underrated car. The 1300cc SOHC, crossflow, all alloy engine had a unique engine cooling system named Duo Dyna Air Cooling. The head and block had airways akin to the water passages of liquid called engines cast with short, stubby vertical fins. An impeller mounted directly to the crank pumped air through the passages, assisted by additional fins on the outside of the block. The dry sump carried plenty of lubricant, in a sense the engine was also oil cooled.
I’m having trouble finding the race record of the R800/1300, my Japanese is limited other than when excessively lubed. Information welcome.
Fukumi Takatake commenced racing motorcycles at 17 and was a contracted Honda rider at 19, winning the All Japan 250cc title in 1966. When Honda withdrew from two-wheel competition in 1967 (for a while!) he switched to four wheels, racing single-seaters, sports and touring cars. He ceased as a racer in 1987 after competing in the All Japan Touring Car Championship.
Etcetera…
The Honda 1300 Coupe 9 was famously the last project Soichiro Honda personally led before retiring as Honda’s ‘Supreme Advisor’ in 1973.
His originality showed through in the design too, albeit times, safety and emissions legislation required a changed more conventional approach to become relevant and appealing to the masses. The brilliant Civic followed, there was nothing particularly novel about it, just great, bullet-proof engineering and build quality. Australian conditions are tough.
My Mk2 Cortina GT was the typical student shit-fighter, but it was all-mine! I felt like I was jilting a babe after a chance drive of a very affordable Coupe 9, by 1976 they were el-cheapos, high risk ones too. My big-mistake was talking to Dad about it, I needed a bridging loan while I flogged Corty and bought 9 Outta 10.
“I’ve spoken to the car guy (the Fleet Manager who thought HQ Kingswoods were edgy) at work!” he said to me the next night, here we go I thought. “He reckons you’re a bloody idiot, it will cost you heaps. You’re looking after the Ford, he reckons you’ll have to rev the ears off it – just like the last bloke did…” And so on…
So I never did buy it but man it was a nice thing. A weird mix of old-tech like the rear axle, then that out-there engine and sweet gearbox. But it was so cohesive as a package, a howling but torquey engine, shitty looking nose tho. Time to drive one again, an interesting Classic Car article perhaps…
Credits…
Sanei Shobo, Historic Japanese Racing Cars Facebook page, Yukio Kobayashi, honda-rsc.com, yoshimura-rd.com
Tailpieces…
Soichiro Honda looking pretty happy at the wheel of an S600 or S800 Honda.
John Surtees Honda RA300 ahead of Chris Amon’s Ferrari 312 at Monza in 1967. Big John won the race in a last lap duel and last corner fumble from Jack Brabham’s BT24 Repco, two-hundredths of a second the official margin.
Maybe Honda had mercy on Jack – their F2 partner in 1965-66 – saving him the embarrassment of the more obvious corporate shot! See here for a piece on that partnership; https://primotipo.com/2021/12/17/brabham-honda/
Finito…
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