Here at Jalopnik we love it when a car goes “nyooom” really fast on a race track. A high-rev V12 in the back of a cigar-shaped F1 car? Who doesn’t love that? Honda recently had its 1965 RA272 out at Laguna Seca to run some demonstration laps for the fans at the Monterey Motorsport Reunion. That event is a tentpole of the Monterey Car Week festivities, and every year finds a way to outdo itself. This car represents the first major win for a Japanese brand on the international stage, and it’s an honor to see it run.
Barely a year after entering its first Formula 1 race, Honda found victory at the hands of American racer Richie Ginther in the 1965 Mexican Grand Prix. While most other competitors chose to build V8s for the 1.5-liter formula, Honda went hog wild with tiny pistons and a complex rotating assembly, building a 13,000 RPM V12. That season’s chassis was impossibly tiny and light, weighing just a smidge over 1,000 pounds and making 240 horsepower.
While a lot of this video shows the car just trundling around in a line of other demonstration cars, including other F1 cars and the newest creation from Meyers Manx, there are a few moments where the car really gets to open up its throat and yell as loud as it can. Luckily this V12 still sounds pretty damn good at low RPM, so even when it’s just trundling along at partial throttle, it’s a symphonic sensation.
Good on Honda for not only keeping this car in running order, but putting it through its paces occasionally for the F1 heads like me. This is a special car, and it would be seriously sad if it was relegated to static display. Any car forced to sit on display and never run is a travesty. These machines were built to run!