Report From Japan
REPORT FROM JAPAN
W. B. SWIM
HONDA REALLY OUGHT to get into the cloak-and-dagger business — the way they can keep a secret. Latest to come out into the light of day, and one that nobody in Japan had even heard so much as a rumor about, is the sensational 6-cylinder 250cc racer which Jim Redman rode to third place at Monza. Not much information can be gleaned by even the most devious devices about this new machine even now, but the 24-valve double overhead camshaft racer reportedly has six carburetors, 8 speeds and more than 50 bhp. Engine speed is around 16,500 rpm for about 50,000 firings per minute. Imagine the noise! The engine, as best can be judged from Honda's fours and pictures from Monza, has six carburetors lined up in a row across the frame. This sounds like a terrifically wide engine to mount in a road racer, but a little slide rule work shows overall width can be held to around 20 inches. The fairing has bubbles on the side, apparently to accommodate the ends of the engine.
Jim Redman made a super-secret flight to Japan before Monza and tested the 250cc Six at Suzuka Circuit. He pronounced it ready to go, and it was airlifted to Italy. When it started missing at full 150 mph speeds and lost the race, Mr. Honda reportedly roared off like a rocket anil lashed out at everyone around. He is mad as all get-out that the machine was unveiled before it was ready. Mr. Honda likes to win. He does not like to lose.
This leads up to hot speculation that Honda will enter a 4-cylinder 50cc racer in the Japan Grand Prix this year. I his brings on fantastic problems, such as trying to fit four valves plus a spark plug in such a small head, but Honda is quite capable of having 6mm or even 4mm spark plugs manufactured for it. and they might even buy Sherlock Holmestype magnifying glasses for the poor mechanics who would have to fit fingersize pistons and matchst ick-sizc piston pins into the beast. Honda's racers turning close to 20.000 rpm have run up against the speed barrier, with the pistons moving as fast as they will go for various reasons (Gordon Jennings can explain why better than I). So now if Honda is losing in some class, the only way to increase speed is to increase power by upping piston speed (which can't be done) or increasing the number of pistons. They lost the 250cc class to Yamaha this year, thus the 250cc Six. And they lost the 50cc to Suzuki again, thus speculation about a 50cc Lour to replace their twin unveiled at last year's Japan Grand Prix. They just might race a 500cc machine at Suzuka, too. 1 ook out Mike Hailwood!
The big stories this month are the Tokyo Motor Show, which is reported in a separate story, and the local elation over Japanese successes in world Grand Prix competition this year. Yamaha won its first World Championship when Phil Read took the 250cc crown, Suzuki kept its 50cc title with Hugh Anderson's victory. Jim Redman made it three years in a row for the 350cc crown for Honda, and Luigi T averi copped the 125cc trophy from Suzuki for Honda. So Japan brought home the bacon in all four classes it contested, and every factory that laid out the machines and money grabbed at least one championship.
Which brings us up to this year's Japan Grand Prix scheduled at Suzuka Circuit on Nov. I. Last year there was a hot hassle at the Motorcycling Federation of Japan (MIT) sponsored first J.G.P. when the track owner, an outfit controlled by Honda, demanded a fee of nearly $150.000 from Suzuki just to let them take movies of the races to complete a film they had been taking at Grand Prix events all year. The MFJ. which of course rented the track for the day. refused to do anything, claiming it did not have the movie rights. This lent more color to the story that it is also a handmaid of Honda. As the 50cc class championship had not been decided. Suzuki was forced to race in the Japan Grand Prix to nab that victory, like it or lump it. movies or no movies. Since then Suzuki has steered shy of Suzuka Circuit events and MFJ races as well. For instance. Suzuki refused to give factory support to any machines in the recent 18-hour endurance race sponsored by the MFJ at Suzuka Circuit. Up until last year’s G.P., Honda and Suzuki were unofficially teamed up to hold Yamaha down. Now it appears the line-up is switched and Suzuki and Yamaha are teamed against the Honda giant. Those in the know' last year were whispering that if you ever wanted to see a Japan Grand Prix to be sure and go last year, as there might very well not be one this year if all the world championships were decided before the J.G.P.. last on the FIM schedule. They are all decided now. and again speculation is rising on whether Suzuki and Yamaha may refuse to enter the Japan Grand Prix, leaving Honda to race against itself and the very, very few' foreign entries expected to make the long trip.
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While we’re on Grand Prix racing, it’s not too early to say that Japanese may be less in evidence on the circuit next year. Regardless of the above, informal talks at low levels are going on between Honda, Suzuki and Yamaha aimed at limiting their participation to seven out of the 13 or so FIM classics. The FIM next year has ruled that the best seven performances will count toward the world title. With most of the competition being between themselves, they arc pretty confident they can nab the world championships and subsequently publicity while cutting expenses by about half by agreeing to enter only seven events. The races scratched would be in places where racing is not much help in marketing their machines. These include the U. S. Grand Prix, Argentine (which was dropped this year). Finnish. Irish. Fast German and Italian. Japanese makers would only compete in the Isle of Man T.T.. Dutch T.T.. and Grands Prix in Spain. West Germany. Trance. Belgium and Japan if the talks pan out.
Japanese makers, particularly Suzuki and Honda, are concerned over reports that Britain may impose limits on imports of motorcycles from this nation. Suzuki in particular has increased exports to Britain tremendously in the past year. The official Japan External Trade Organization reported recently that Britain is considering invoking the safeguard clause in the Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Commerce and Navigation against Japanese motorcycles. The clause can be invoked to limit imports in case they threaten a domestic industry. Japan exported only 4.270 motorcycles to Britain in 1962 but this zoomed to more than 51.600 in 1963 and during the first six months of this >ear some 74.000 motorcycles Nvere shipped to Britain. This Nvas expected to reach above the 100.000 mark by the end of the year, which Nvould be as many motorcycles as all of Britain's makers combined are expected to make this year.
On the export side of things, the latest development is a surge by Bridgestone. Japan’s fourth largest maker. They had been slogging along at a 500 per month export pace last year and doubled this to around 1.000 monthly in the early months of 1964. In August. hoNvever, Bridgestone topped the 2.000 mark for the first time by selling 2.335 abroad. This Nvas a big gain over the 1.885 exports the month before. Around half of Bridgestone’s exports are to the United States, which took 1.300 motorcycles in August. In recent months the company has cut production of 50cc machines and upped the number of 90cc units turned out. Plans call for production of 8.000 motorcycles monthly for the next feNv months, with 5.500-6.000 being 90cc and 2.400-2.500 being 50cc. Production plans for the 125cc have not been announced yet.
As a result of Managing Director M. Koike’s recent trip to the United States. Yamaha has decided they must increase production next year more than was planned. Yamaha now can turn out only about 70% of the motorcycles they have orders for. and a new factory addition designed to bring production up to 30.000 monthly is underway. This Nvon’t be enough, Mr. Koike found.
I.ast year Yamaha made 15.000-16.000 motorcycles monthly and this was upped to 20.000 per month early this year. In recent months Yamaha has heen straining every machine tool in the factory (originally designed for a maximum production of 15.000) by working double shifts anti turning out 22.000-23.000 every thirty days. Of this, only 8.000 are marked for exports so as to leave the company with enough machines to remain competitive with Honda and Suzuki on the home market. Orders from abroad, however, have been running over 10.000 each month. Mr. Koike went to the U. S. primarily to explain to Yamaha International why they couldn't get about 2 000-2.500 machines out of the 8.000 they were ordering each month, and to ask them to be patient until next spring when the new factory is in production. He found, however, that demands next year will be double this ye;u's orders. So on his return to Japan the company decided the new factory must be larger than planned to boost monthly production well above the 30.000 mark. Yamaha original!v hoped to ship 60.000 motorcycles to the U.S. this year, but that figure was topped in August, and now it looks like they will sell 80.000 before Christmas. Next year Yamaha's American dealers estimate a market for 160.000 motorcycles.
The world's top maker, Honda, continues to grow and grow. The fiscal report for the last six months, which is due out shortly, should show a profit of around $6.000.000 on sales of $145.000.000. Of this approximately $40.000.000 is exports. This is a bit less than Honda goals, it is reported, as production of the Honda 90 Sports and the sports car was held down in line with the government's finance policy, which has tightened up the money market. Sales of around 72.400 motorcycles and 12.700 sports cars during the half year will be reported. Exports totaled around 208.000 machines.
Yamaha's sales during the same half year were more than 5OG up over the preceding six months, topping $34,700.000. Profits ought to be around $550.000.
Suzuki is expected to report profits of around $1.660.000 for the six months on sales of about $47.200.000. Both figures are right on the mark the company had aimed tit. and increases were largely due to expanded exports, up to I7G of production from the former 10G.
Honda nabbed a l.OOOcc class sports car 500 kilometer endurance race at Nurburgring in West Germany with its 600cc sports car. This was the car's first competition appearance. The sports car. which has a 606cc engine in standard form, was equipped with a 630cc DOHC 16 valve 4-cylinder engine in the race which drew 64 G.T. and prototype cars tip to l.300cc in size. Honda placed 13th overall in winning the l.OOOcc G.T. class by some 2 minutes over an Aharth. •
