Honda's motorsport arm, Honda Racing Corporation (HRC), has announced it is starting a "memorabilia business" later this year, selling some of its collection of "valuable race cars, engines, and their parts from the past, delivering them to core fans who love racing."
And it isn't messing around either, as the first items it will be offering for auction at the Monterey Car Week in the United States in August are parts of a Honda RA100E V10 engine. You know; the one that won the FIA Formula One World Championship in 1990 in the legendary McLaren MP4/5B piloted by a driver you may have heard of by the name of Ayrton Senna.
According to the company several RA100E V10s (you can also get parts from one of Gerhard Berger's engines) were disassembled by skilled mechanics at HRC's factory in Sakura City, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan who were actually involved in assembling this engine when it was new.
The auction items will include a complete set of engine parts, or specific parts such as camshafts, cam covers, pistons, and connecting rods, housed in acrylic cases and accompanied by an original HRC certificate proving their authenticity.
In a statement released announcing the new venture the company said that the memorabilia business was "a valuable endeavor that allows passionate fans who truly love F1 and racing to own a part of Honda's history of challenges in world’s pinnacle racing and share the moments of victory from that time."
"We aim to make this a valuable business that allows fans who love F1, MotoGP, and various other races to share in the history of Honda's challenges in racing since the 1950s,” said Koji Watanabe, President of HRC.
"It is not intended to be a one-time endeavor, but rather a continuous business that we will nurture and grow."
That growth looks to expand the variety of mouth-watering racing machinery it will off too, with the company saying it is currently selecting "heritage machines from the IndyCar series and valuable race machines from motorcycles to be included in the future."
Honda showcases its race history at the Honda Collection Hall in Mobility Resort Motegi, Tochigi Prefecture, and the Honda Racing Gallery at Suzuka Circuit in Mie Prefecture. These exhibits include motorcycles that participated in the Isle of Man TT races in the 1950s, the early F1 cars from the 1960s when Honda started its automobile business, and various other machines up to the present day.
The company says that some of them are maintained in running condition, and that it holds "many spare parts" for this purpose. Among these are engines and parts Honda says are of "high historical value" and that it "carefully selects sellable parts to ensure items up for sale do not affect the preservation of the running machines."
Monterey Car Week kicks off in Monterey, California, on Friday, August 8 this year and runs until Sunday, August 17.