Finishing First! |
| March
25, 1999 A Newsletter
By Colin
Sato Volume
3, Issue 1 |
Crossing
The Pond - Racing in America |
| In my last newsletter I
chronicled Honda's original foray into F-1 and their subsequent domination at the pinnacle
of international motorsports. After Honda's retirement from F-1, they embarked on a
gradual increase of their motorsports involvement here in America. During the 1991, 1992,
and 1993 seasons nobody could beat Parker Johnstone in his Acura powered Spice/Comptech
Camel Lights GTP car. Running a modified V-6 from our NSX sports car, this Acura won an
unprecedented 3 straight drivers and manufacturers championships. In 1994 Honda entered the CART
PPG World Series as an engine supplier for the same reasons Mr. Honda emphasized long
ago: "Use racing to train up-and-coming engineers." For example, the chief
engineer of the 3.0 CL engine was the chief engineer of the Formula One engine program.
The CART engine program continues to pay dividends today. Honda powered cars have won
three consecutive CART drivers titles. In 1996 the title went to the Target-Ganassi Racing Team and driver Jimmy Vasser.
The 1997 and 1998 titles went to his teammate Alex Zanardi.
|
For three
years ('91-'93) nobody could touch Parker Johnstone in his NSX powered Camel Lights GTP
car. |
But 1998 didn't start off that good, in
fact the first race was won by Michael Andretti with Ford power. The second race would be
at Honda's home track: Motegi.
The Motegi motorsports complex is owned and
operated by Honda, has been in the planning stages for ten years, and could be viewed as
the culmination of Mr. Honda's vision. On the morning of the first race, Nobuhiko Kawamoto
the president of Honda (now retired) anonymously stopped by the paddock to visit his
teams. The following is quoted from Autoweek: "...the former Honda Formula One
engineer asked Chip Ganassi, "how is everything here?" Ganassi looked Kawamoto
straight in the eye and said, "I can answer that in two words: more power." And
he wasn't talking about electrical outlets in the garage." Honda did not win that
race, Ford did, the highest placing Honda was Gil de Ferran in third. Because of this
failure - at their home track - that Kawamoto promised changes immediately. "Mr.
Honda once hit one of his engineers on the head with a hammer," Kawamoto is alleged
to have said, "and I will do the same if I have to. There are too many middle men
between the drivers and the engine builders. The key to performance is communication. I
want the drivers talking directly to the engine men. There will be more power."
| Alex
Zanardi lights up the tires under braking at the Long Beach Grand Prix. Zanardi would
finish his CART career with his second championship in a row before returning to F-1. |
Photo from
Speedcenter.com |
Those words were prophetic, for in the 17
races remaining in the '98 season, Honda won 13 of them! Alex Zanardi finished his CART
career with his second consecutive title and Honda drivers finished in the top three
places in points - again! In five short years of competition Honda has developed into the
powerhouse of CART racing.
The dedication to winning and the desire to
Finish First is leading a whole new crew of engineers to stretch their imaginations to
find new answers to old questions. These young engineers are getting pretty used to
winning, and when they return to passenger car duty they will bring that passion to the
consumer products we offer for you. Ultimately this is why we race. To provide a better
product for you. |
The Fastest Lap |
Drivers
Education 101 |
My enthusiasm for
racing and high performance cars is a well known fact. I recently had the opportunity to
give my MR-2 a real workout. Our local Porsche club in conjunction with the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) sponsored a high performance
Driver Training session at Barbers Point NAS. The event was held on an old abandoned WWII
airstrip and the course layout was set up using traffic cones
 |
My
MR-2 kicks up some dust after a quick spin. |
The day-long events were split into a
morning session with four stations.
 | Threshold braking - an opportunity to test
your car's ABS system, and feel maximum braking. |
| Slalom - running through the cones to learn
how your car handles fast transient maneuvers. |
| Emergency lane change - get your car up to
about 20 MPH and a course worker will flag you left or right at the last possible minute |
| Skid pad - steady state cornering at the
limit of your car's available traction. |
| Franceen's
GS-R on the skid pad. Look at the workout she's giving the outside front tire! |
 |
When you add all of those individual
stations together you'll have a racetrack! In the afternoon session we did just that, we
ran the combined stations and gauged our progress against the stopwatch. We never had the
cars wheel to wheel and there was a lot of spacing between cars on the track. In addition
to my MR-2, my wife Franceen had her '97 Acura Integra GS-R, and our friend Jerry Balcer
brought his '97 Acura NSX-T.
 |
Jerry's
NSX on the road course. We had a really hard time getting the shot because the car was
really flying past us! |
Everyone in attendance had a lot of fun,
running around and knocking over cones, but we all came away with a greater appreciation
of the performance capabilities of these modern cars. We learned our cars will stop
quicker than we thought, go around a corner better than we ever could have imagined, and
hopefully we'll remember all that if an emergency situation is upon us. |
  
|
|
