Help celebrate Honda's 50th
Monday 12 January 2009
TT
The 50th anniversary of Honda’s first Isle of Man TT will be marked with a special exhibition at the Manx Museum.
Honda’s first TT was in 1959 and the exhibition - Honda: The Golden Age 1959-1967 – will recall that year, as well as charting the growing involvement of the firm in the 1960s, reflecting Soichiro Honda’s belief the TT represented the pinnacle of sporting achievement.
He dedicated the entire resources of his company to achieving success in this event and the TT is still a major part of Honda’s heritage, as recent advertising campaigns have shown.
Honda: The Golden Age 1959-1967 will include early Honda memorabilia, memories of Japanese riders and mechanics who came here in the 1960s, as well as film highlights.
As it plans the exhibition, to coincide with this year’s festival, Manx National Heritage is appealing for help from TT fans. It wants to hear from anyone who has memories, memorabilia or photos from Honda’s early years at the TT.
MNH Social History Curator Matthew Richardson, who is co-ordinating the exhibition, said:
‘When Honda machines and mechanics first appeared at the TT in 1959, they were not taken seriously. No one really believed for a moment that these little motorbikes were anything more than inferior copies of western products.’
‘For the Japanese as well it was a journey into the unknown, for many of the team had never experienced western culture or food before.’
‘By 1967, when Mike Hailwood won the Senior for the second time on a Honda, the firm’s dominance was complete. In only 8 short years Honda had won everything there was to win in solo racing at the TT.’
‘Along the way they had gathered legions of fans and done much to restore Anglo-Japanese relations which had been badly damaged by the war.’
Mr Richardson asked anyone with memories of that first Honda team staying at the Nursery Hotel in Onchan in 1959, any photographs, or any souvenirs given away by the Japanese mechanics in the pits to contact MNH.
If you can help please contact Matthew Richardson at matthew.richardson@gov.im or on 01624 648 000.