Legendary motorcycles and racers from Honda's glorious past will be the stars of the show as the Japanese motorcycle manufacturer celebrates a very special birthday at the Goodwood Festival of Speed on June 24-26.
In 2005 the firm is celebrating 40 years of operating as Honda UK in Great Britain and they're set to take Goodwood by storm by setting up the biggest collection of race and road motorcycles to be seen outside of the Honda Collection in Japan. More than 20 classic road and race machines will be on display over the Festival of Speed weekend - with many of the race bike's original riders flying in to take part in this unique event in the motorsport calendar.
Race machines and riders in attendance from Honda's past include the RC149 ridden by Swiss rider Luigi Taveri, an RC181 ridden by Belfast's Tommy Robb, a 1985 NSR500 ridden by American Freddie Spencer and a 1995 NSR as ridden by five-times World 500cc champ Mick Doohan from Australia. They will be joined by many other race machines and riders, as well as Honda's modern MotoGP machine - the RC211V - with current contender Nicky Hayden flying in from the USA.
Road bikes from Honda's past include the legendary Honda Cub and CX500 Turbo, the sporty CBR900RR FireBlade and RC30, VFR750 and CBR1100 sports-tourers and the GL1000 and GL1500 members of the GoldWing family of tourers.
The Goodwood Festival of Speed has been a major event in the motorsports calendar for the past decade. It is a hill-climb event that marries the current Earl of March's love of motorsports on two and four wheels with a passion for the history of racing cars and motorcycles. It's all set in the glorious grounds of Goodwood, near Chichester in West Sussex. As well as bikes, Honda will be at Goodwood in force on four wheels as well, with six full-sized Honda-powered Formula 1 cars taking pride of place in the central display outside Goodwood House. BAR-Honda will be at the event to help celebrate 'Honda's 40 Years of Grand Prix Success'. Japanese star Takuma Sato will drive one of BAR's cars on the Saturday, while British ace Jenson Button will be behind the wheel on the Sunday.
Honda's British Touring Car Championship drivers Matt Neal, Dan Eaves and Tom Chilton will be there with their Honda Civic and Integra machines. Meanwhile John Surtees, motorcycling legend-turned Formula 1 World Champion, makes a welcome return in the Honda RA 300.
Online bookings at:
goodwood.co.uk
