The world's largest motorcycle manufacturer did not make its first car until 1963, and even then it owed much of its mechanical underpinnings to the two wheeled variety. Founded by Soichiro Honda, one of nine children from a poor family, he was a gifted engineer and astute businessman. Apprenticed in a car repair shop, got his first chance to actually drive a car during the Toyko earthquake of 1923, then ferrying people and supplies around the devastated city.

Dabbled with racing cars, but his big break came after World War 2 when he realised that few could afford a car, and so turned his attention to the manufacture of ex-military two-stoke engines fitted to bicycles. Manufactured their first motorcycle, the Dream, in 1949, which was fitted with a four-stoke engine. Launched the chain driven 500 sports car in 1963, subsequent iterations becoming more conventional, and more popular.