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| Surtees’ machine (left) getting the checkered flag in the Italian Grand Prix in September 1967. The lightweight chassis, developed jointly with Lora, contributed to the team’s second victory. |
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Everyone was confident going into the 1968 season. After five years of hard, painstaking struggle, the team had accumulated sufficient technical know-how, finally coming to understand exactly what its strengths and weaknesses were. At last, they understood what was needed to win the Grand Prix.
Therefore, the order by Soichiro Honda to develop an air-cooled F-1 engine came as great surprise. The N360 carrying an air-cooled engine, released in March 1967, had become a best-selling car. Assured by the N360’s success, Mr. Honda greenlighted the development of the H1300—a new model to be equipped with an air-cooled engine—in order to gain a foothold in the passenger-car market. Mr. Honda was convinced that world-class cars must be powered by air-cooled engines. However, he wanted to prove the superiority of Honda’s technology in the F-1 arena before applying it to the company's commercial models.
Honda eventually decided to build both water-cooled and air-cooled engines for the 1968 F-1 season. The opinion of Nakamura, who wanted to win the race, and that of Mr. Honda, who believed racing to be a proving ground, led to a "water-cooled engine vs. air-cooled engine" debate that divided the research center.
The F-1 RA301, carrying a water-cooled engine, competed in all races. However, it only finished three: the French Grand Prix, where the machine scored its best, second-place result; and the subsequent British and U.S. Grand Prix races, where it finished fifth and third, respectively.
"In terms of overall competitiveness as measured by the combined power of men and machine," said Surtees, "Honda had a good chance of winning several races, including the Belgian Grand Prix and Italian Grand Prix. The fact that we lost these races means we simply didn’t have good luck." His comment was a strong indication that by then the team had sufficient technology and excellent teamwork.
The air-cooled F-1 RA302, on the other hand, could not have had a worse debut. At the French Grand Prix held in July, in which the machine competed after a rather abrupt decision just before the race, the RA302 crashed, leading to the death of its driver, Jo Schlesser.
"When one competes in a race, an ‘A or B’ approach will never work," says Kawamoto, who at the time was designing water-cooled engines at the same time as his involvement in air-cooled engines. "We must concentrate on one strategy in order to win. Mr. Nakamura was right from the viewpoint of a racing team. However, the logic of the Old Man, who wanted to build an air-cooled F-1 engine as a stepping stone to developing and successfully marketing mass-production cars powered by air-cooled engines, was also correct from the viewpoint of a company."
"One strong reason behind the push for air-cooled engines was Mr. Honda’s strong belief in the engine," recalls Kume, who was in charge of the development and design of air-cooled engines. "However, having been involved personally in the project, I must admit I was excited with the opportunity to do something no one had ever done before. Of course, none of us had expected such a tragic ending. |
