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Suzuka 12 Hours 1968 - Honda S800 RSC #25

Added 2024-04-17 10:00:08 +0000 UTC

In 1965, Honda established the RSC (Racing Service Club) within the Suzuka circuit as a tuning shop for sports users, to provide a serious tuning service. The sports car which launched in sync with this in 1966, was the S800. The S800 already showed phenomenal performance even stock. However RSC performed extensive tuning on it based on the experience gained from the S600 in the previous year, and it made its circuit debut.

The DOHC inline-4 engine was bored up from 791 cc to 845 cc. Using special high performance pistons made by RSC, the compression was raised from 9.2 to 10.5, and with the addition of a quad CR carburettor, output was raised from 69hp to over 99hp.

The gearbox was changed from the production 4-speed to a racing 5-speed. The vehicle weight was reduced from the 720kg of the standard market model, to 660kg including racing roll bars and other equipment. Even with its small displacement engine, it still reached speeds of over 124 mph.

1967 was the first year that RSC directly raced the S800 with extreme modifications at Suzuka. The RSC models seemed superior to the standard S800's from the very start, raking up class wins and even podium finishes at major races in 1967. For 1968, the car would take another class win at the Suzuka 1000km, and most famously, finish 3rd overall at the Suzuka 12 Hours. It had a 40 lap lead over the 2nd in class competitor, and was only beaten by 2 Toyota 7 (415S), which had a 3L V8.

Following these successes, Honda directly supported RSC with the development of the R800, a custom chassis and body utilizing RSC modified S800 parts. RSC also sold individual parts from their workplace at Suzuka for privateers, with plenty of kitcars using parts from the RSC company. Tetsu Ikuzawa's 1967 Nürburgring 500km entry was also a Honda S800 modified by RSC.