No Brilliant Results, But a Car of Great Significance

: The Honda RA271 F1 Racer Original by: Honda Magazine | Japanese Car Enthusiasts Magazine | 2025-04-05 16:01:19

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🏁 It is widely known that Honda's participation in Formula 1 was part of their path to gaining qualification for manufacturing four-wheeled cars. Almost every automotive media outlet mentions this when introducing Honda. However, when talking about this history, most only focus on Honda entering F1, without giving much attention to the actual car used in the race. 🧐

📚 In fact, if you look deeper into the archives, you’ll find that Honda’s race car had many highlights. Although its performance on the track wasn’t stellar, the car carried unique significance for Honda. As Honda fans, we have every reason to understand its story. So let’s explore the story behind RA271, the car Honda used in its first F1 participation. 🏎️🇯🇵

📷 This is the Cooper T53 that Honda originally purchased with the intention of using it to participate in F1. However, since this chassis could not accommodate the V12 engine, it was ultimately not used.

🛠️ To talk about the RA271, we first need to discuss the RA270E engine. After Honda’s great success in the motorcycle industry 🏍️, the company began looking into producing four-wheeled vehicles. At the time, Japan was preparing to implement the "Special Vehicle Law" (Tokushin-ho), and since Honda had no prior experience in car manufacturing, there was a real chance they would not qualify under this new legislation.

🎯 To overcome this, Honda decided to follow its old strategy—entering world-class racing events to prove its capability in building four-wheeled cars, thereby gaining recognition and qualification. However, Honda had no experience in building F1 cars. As a result, Honda bought a Cooper T53 chassis and assigned their third company president, Mr. Kume Shiji, who was then an engine development engineer, to develop an F1 engine. Mr. Kume completed the task, and the result was the RA270E F1 engine. ⚙️

🏎️ This was Honda’s first F1 race car—named the RA270—based on the Cooper T53 chassis and sharing the same structure. However, it was only used for testing and did not participate in any races.

❌ In the end, this engine was never installed in the Cooper T53 chassis. That’s because, unlike the commonly used V8 engines in F1 at the time (used by Ferrari, BRM, etc.), the RA270E was a V12. Since the chassis could not accommodate it, Honda boldly decided to develop their own chassis.

👨🔧 They assigned Mr. Toshiji Baba, who had experience in developing motorcycle frames, to lead the project. Development of the new chassis began in November 1962 and was completed in December 1963. It was also named RA270, same as the engine. RA stood for Racing Automobile, and 270 represented the target top speed of 270 km/h. 🏁

🔄 Although presented in separate paragraphs, RA270 and RA270E were developed concurrently, while the purchase of the Cooper T53 occurred earlier. RA270E development began in August 1962, and by 1963 the engine was assembled and bench-tested. RA270 ultimately did not become a race car because its technology was relatively outdated. It still used the tubular space frame structure like the Cooper.

🆕 RA271 and RA270 looked very different. RA271 adopted an aluminum monocoque structure, where the body shell was a single integrated unit. This design was first introduced by the Lotus team and later adopted by Honda.

💡 The RA270E engine attracted attention as soon as it was completed. At that time, Lotus was already in talks with Honda regarding engine supply. Honda even planned to supply the RA270E exclusively to Lotus, but the deal eventually fell through. Nevertheless, Honda remained determined to enter F1 independently.

🧠 This time, they brought in Mr. Yoshio Nakamura as the chief engineer. (For more on Mr. Nakamura, see our featured article: "He was Honda’s F1 Team Director and also the first head of Honda’s commercial vehicle division – Yoshio Nakamura")

🔍 The transparent view allows us to clearly see the internal structure of the vehicle.

🚘 Although the RA271 was developed based on the RA270 and centered around the V12 engine, it was significantly different. RA271 featured a full aluminum monocoque body structure, a technology first pioneered by Colin Chapman and the Lotus team in 1962. Honda adopted this structure to reduce weight.

⚖️ Since the RA271 used a V12 engine, it was heavier than rival cars. If Honda had used the traditional tubular frame, the car would have been even heavier. But even with the monocoque chassis, due to Japan’s relatively underdeveloped metalworking technology at the time, Honda could not procure 1.6mm thin aluminum sheets.

📏 As a result, the RA271 still weighed 525kg, while the minimum weight allowed by F1 regulations was 450kg—a 75kg disadvantage. This weight difference severely limited RA271's competitiveness.

🔧 Aside from the monocoque structure, the front suspension was also inspired by Lotus’s design. The horizontally mounted shock absorbers and pushrod system were quite novel at the time. In the rear, RA271 still used a double wishbone setup, but the design was slightly modified, featuring a triangular upper arm and two-link lower arms.

🛞 Beyond the chassis design, the front suspension system was also different from RA270. Although both used double wishbone suspensions, the damper positioning was different. The RA270 retained a vertical damper placement (from the Cooper T53 design), while RA271’s dampers were mounted horizontally inside the chassis and activated via pushrods.

🚀 This configuration, common in modern F1 cars, was a new innovation at the time—also developed by Colin Chapman and his Lotus team. Its main advantage was reduced unsprung mass, allowing for quicker suspension response, which is critical in racing.

🧩 The RA271E engine was a transversely mounted V12—another Honda innovation. Developed by Mr. Kume Shiji, its concept was an extension of motorcycle engines. It had a displacement of 1,495.28cc and could rev up to 12,000 rpm. 🔄💥

🔧 As mentioned earlier, Honda originally planned to supply the V12 engine to Lotus, but after that plan was canceled, Honda installed it in their own car. The engine was further improved and renamed RA271E. It was still a 60° V12 developed by Mr. Kume.

📐 With bore and stroke dimensions of 58.1mm × 47mm, its displacement was just 1,495.28cc—about 125cc per cylinder, a familiar size for motorcycle enthusiasts. This was because the RA271E was essentially a scaled-up motorcycle engine. With small displacement, the only way to produce power was through high rpm.

🏎️ The RA271E could exceed 12,000 rpm and produced over 220 hp—20 to 30 more than competitors. However, the extra 75kg of weight offset this power advantage.

👨✈️ The RA271 was driven by American Ronnie Bucknum, who was also the first American to drive a Honda F1 car.

📆 RA271 officially entered competition in August 1964, at the German Grand Prix. The driver, Ronnie Bucknum, was a rookie at the time. The debut performance was underwhelming—not only due to the car’s weight, but also due to issues with the RA271E engine.

🛢️ Since the engine was transversely mounted and based on motorcycle design (which typically featured vertical layouts or single cylinders), it suffered from oil starvation during cornering. Without a dry sump system, oil sloshed in the sump under lateral loads, causing the oil pump to fail at drawing oil.

🌡️ Without proper lubrication and cooling, the engine overheated easily and failed to perform reliably. Despite efforts by Mr. Nakamura to fix the problem, the issue persisted until the RA272.

🏆 Although the RA271 did not achieve stellar race results, it was of great importance to Honda. By participating in F1, Honda successfully passed the Special Vehicle Law and gained qualification to manufacture four-wheeled vehicles.

🚗 This led to the successful launch of the S360 and T360—marking the beginning of Honda’s glorious history in car manufacturing. 🎉🇯🇵