Categories: Look backRace and classic pictures

The man behind the billion-dollar Honda name

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Soichiro Honda was born on November 17, 1906 in Tenryū, Shizuoka, a small village under Mount Fuji. After a pre-World War 2 career making piston rings for Toyota, he established the Honda business in 1948 in a wooden shack. Initially manufacturing bicycle motors, he oversaw the company's expansion into a billion-dollar multinational automobile and motorcycle manufacturer.

Dubbed "the Japanese Henry Ford", Honda himself remained president until his retirement in 1973 but stayed on as a director of the company and was appointed "supreme advisor" in 1983. He stayed active and had hobbies ranging from skiing and hang-gliding to ballooning, before finally passing away at the age of 84 on this date, August 5, in 1991.

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.