Buzzin Motor Sport

When Honda Racing F1 entered the Formula 1 circuit between 1964 and 1968, it’s relatively short lifespan nonetheless established the Japanese car manufacturer as a guardian of innovation: just 4 years after the introduction of its first road vehicles, Honda became only the third team in F1 history to develop and manufacture its own original engine and chassis.

If that fact wasn’t a signal of intention in itself, it is worth noting that the only two teams to have done so prior to Honda were the hugely successful BRM, and current Formula One giants Ferrari.

Their creativity paid off: Honda got their first race win in the 1965 Mexican Grand Prix. At the close of the 1968, though, Honda’s team faced tragedy and chose to withdraw: driver Jo Schlesser crashed and died at the French Grand Prix.

Despite their withdrawal, Honda has maintained an incredibly successful career in formula one. As a manufacturer of parts, their forward thinking designs have meant that – when between 1983 and 1992, they provided engines for other F1 teams – cars with Honda engines took six Constructors Championships and saw five drivers race to Driver Championships in cars with Honda engines.

One such driver was the legendary Ayrton Senna, who won his three championships in cars with a Honda engine.

In the 21st century, Honda is now one of the world’s leading car manufacturers. It’s presence in F1 is perhaps now less well known to the casual viewer than it was in the 1960s, but lives on with a great degree of success as the Mercedes GP team, for which 7 times world champion Michael Schumacher now races.

And the forward thinking approach continues at Mercedes GP, as it does with Honda’s road vehicles. Honda’s current range of three hybrid cars represent the peak of innovation in the technology, and  – from the Insight Hybrid, through to the brand new CR-Z hybrid – the company are claiming that they offer the driver the best of both worlds; a car which is not only green and efficient, and that also offers great economy as well as a significantly lower carbon footprint, but which also offers no radical compromise in terms of performance and power. It is a somewhat proud claim and one worthy of serious investigation.

These variations on the hybrid car, like Honda’s confident early developments in F1 in the 1960s and their design work in the 80s and 90s, shows that the manufacturer has innovation at their heart.

Indeed, after several years waiting for a viable workable hybrid engine, after several expensive failures, Honda have produced a range of hybrid cars that look like achieving that lofty aim.

The first car in the range is the Honda Insight Hybrid, or as it has come to be known the Insight (Family Hybrid). The reason for this being that the Insight is Honda’s entry-level family hybrid car. Sharing the same levels of comfort as any petrol or diesel guzzling car in its price range, the Insight Hybrid is available for an on the road price of just £16,325.

The emission rate of just 101 g/km means that it qualifies to be exempt from road tax in the UK (Road Tax Band B) and if you live in London, it also means that you are exempt from the congestion charge.

Furthermore, with a fuel economy rating of 64.2 miles per gallon, you won’t be lining the pockets of the petrol companies too often either. It’s 1.3 litre petrol/electrical engine powers the car to a respectable 113 miles per hour, plenty along any motorway in the United Kingdom and on top of that, the car accelerates from 0-62 mph in just 12.5 seconds.

While the performance isn’t likely to send the car into warp speed, it is certainly more than enough to satisfy the environmentally conscious family driver seeking a practical, affordable and economically viable vehicle.

However the notion that hybrid cars can offer little more than that, even at their best, has also been shot to pieces with the introduction of the Honda CR-Z Hybrid, which hit the UK market in early 2010.

This is where Honda’s seemingly distinct worlds of F1 and roadworthy vehicles combine: Powered by a 1.5 litre petrol/electrical engine, the sporty CR-Z achieves 0-62 mph in an eyebrow raising 9.9 seconds and will keep accelerating up to a lip-smacking 124mph.

Where Honda began its life four years before its first Formula 1 victory as a small provider of road vehicles, it has now cemented its position as one of the foremost thinkers in the development of design in car manufacture, whether it’s in streamlining and speeding up F1 cars, or in developing low emissions vehicles.