Yoshio Nakamura (engineer)

Yoshio Nakamura (September 8, 1918^[1] – December 3, 1994^[1]) was an engine engineer at Honda Motor Co., and a former manager of the Honda F1 team. He was born in Irie-cho, Shimonoseki City, Yamaguchi Prefecture. ^[2]

After attending the Yamaguchi Junior High School and Yamaguchi High School, Yoshio Nakamura entered the Department of Aeronautics (Engineering Specialisation) of the Faculty of Engineering at Tokyo Imperial University in April 1940, graduating early in September 1942. That same year, he joined Nakajima Aircraft Company (one of the predecessors of Fuji Heavy Industries' "Subaru"), where he worked as an engineer in the aircraft engine development department. He also served as a lieutenant in the Imperial Army's Aviation Technology Research Institute and the Army Aviation Inspection Department, where he was involved in the development of the super-large heavy bomber "Fugaku" and the jet fighter attack aircraft Ki-201, known as the "Hawk Dragon". After the war, he joined the Japan National Combustion Machinery Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (later Tokyu Kurogane Kogyo, now Nissan Koki Co., Ltd.), a manufacturer of three-wheeled vehicles, in 1950. After that, Kurogane fell into a management crisis, so he joined Honda in March 1958.^[3]

At the time, Honda was a motorcycle manufacturer and had few engineers with knowledge of automobiles (four-wheeled vehicles), so shortly after joining the company he was put in charge of the four-wheeled vehicle development team at Honda R&D. While overseeing the development of production cars such as the S500 and T360, Nakamura also became manager of the F1 team and was responsible for Honda's F1 participation, which began in 1964. At the start of the 1965 season, Honda Soichiro ordered Nakamura to step down from his position as F1 team manager to focus on the development of production cars. However, Nakamura returned to his role ahead of the final race, the Mexican Grand Prix. At the Mexican Grand Prix, Richie Ginther secured Honda's first F1 victory. At the time, Nakamura sent a telegram to the Tokyo headquarters, echoing Julius Caesar's words: "Veni, vidi, vici" (I came, I saw, I conquered).

He was again removed from his position as F1 team manager in 1966, but returned for a third time the following year in 1967. Around this time, Honda was scaling back its motor-sports activities due to slower sales of new cars, withdrawing from the World Championship for Motorcycles and F2. However, Nakamura, with the cooperation of John Surtees, who became a Honda F1 driver that year, chose to continue competing in F1 by setting up his own garage in the UK. To achieve this, he completely revamped his organisation, including co-developing a chassis with British racing car constructor Lola. As a result, Surtees, driving the Honda RA300 co-developed with Lola, took his second victory as a Honda F1 driver at the Italian Grand Prix that year.

Although expectations were high for the 1968 season, the results were poor. The team faced a series of problems, including the impact of Honda Soichiro's decision to enter the Honda RA302, an air-cooled engine. Even after the partnership with Lola, the team continued to develop F1 engines at its research facility in Japan, but Nakamura decided to withdraw from F1 at the end of the year in order to redirect resources to the development of the Civic, Honda's first hit compact car. After Honda withdrew from F1, he became a European representative for Honda. However, his extended stay in Europe was due to his technical conflicts with Honda over F1 activities which meant he was unable to return to Japan. Nakamura returned to Japan in 1973, when Soichiro Honda retired as president of Honda. After returning to Japan, he served as the company's managing director before retiring to the position of special advisor in 1977. After retiring from the front lines, he became a critic of motorsports such as F1 and left behind numerous publications. He had a regular column in Sanei Shobo's automobile magazine, Motor Fan, which he continued until he died in 1994. After his death, Motor Fan published a manuscript he had written in preparation for his death.^[4]

Nakamura and Honda had a complex relationship. The "image of Honda" was initially an (internal) legend in the industry, but eventually became part of corporate advertising. At major companies like Nissan and Toyota, figures like Sakurai Shinichiro were created under the control of the company, for example, in advertising for the Skyline. In contrast, Honda is seen as someone who embodies the Honda brand image itself, and biographies written by third parties describe him as a "man of ambition," which differs from Nakamura's writing, which is instead written from the perspective of an engineer. Honda's image was shaped by Nakamura in this way for the general public, but after a certain point, stories like the air-cooled version were recounted more than once. For example, in later years, he recalled, "People seem to think that my father and I had a falling out, but the quarrel over whether to use air or water cooling was purely technical, and it seems to be a misunderstanding."^[5] He also said, looking at the technical conflict as a whole, "There were far more issues on which President Honda and I agreed than there were issues on which we disagreed and I, as an employee, had to give in."^[6] In terms of "technical arguments," he also made some harsh remarks, such as, "In the end, President Honda doesn't understand the most basic laws of thermodynamics, so no matter how much he argues, our arguments don't make sense."^[7]

Nakamura's responsibilities extended to production car development. During the 1964 F1 season, he led the racing team while also visiting production sites. By 1965, he returned to Honda's headquarters to focus on the development of four-wheeled production vehicles. During this period, technical disagreements arose regarding Soichiro Honda's preference for air-cooled engines in both racing and production models, such as the Honda 1300. Nakamura, who favored water-cooled designs like the early concepts for the Honda Civic, initially considered resigning due to these development conflicts. However, executives such as Yoshiyoshi Kawashima persuaded him to stay, saying, "Sōichiro Honda will soon retire," and he established a European office and spent approximately three years in London. During those three years, he occasionally returned to Japan to work at the headquarters, but he was so thorough with his work that he never met Honda. In his book "The Lonely Stormy Man," Nakamura points out that " the 'Sōichiro Honda' that has been spread to the public is a fictional image created by Takeo Fujisawa to appeal to the public, and is not the truth." Nakamura also heard Fujisawa say that his final task was to dispel this illusion. However, on the other hand, he also said that he "respects him as a person," and praised Honda for fighting thoroughly against the bureaucrats to protect his company and employees, while a normal president would have considered the future and compromised with the bureaucrats on the Special Measures Bill for the Promotion of Specific Industries.^[8]

• Grand Prix 1: South, West, and North (Nigensha, September 1969). ISBN 4-544-04004-3.
• Grand Prix 2: My Companions (Nigensha, October 1970). ISBN 4-544-04005-1.
• Grand Prix Racing: Together with Honda F1 (Sankaidō, December 1979). ISBN 4-381-00557-0.
• Hello, Cars (San-ei Shobō, June 1980).
• The Past, Present, and Future of Racing Engines (Grand Prix Publishing, November 1981). ISBN 4-381-00438-8.
• Hello, Cars: My Inner Landscape (San-ei Shobō, October 1983). ISBN 4-87904-012-6.
• The F1 Grand Prix Through Time (Nigensha, December 1985). ISBN 4-544-04032-9.
• The F1 Grand Prix: Together with Honda F1, 1963–1968 (Miki Shobō, September 1988). ISBN 4-89522-233-0.
• Portraits of the F1 Grand Prix (Miki Shobō, March 1989). ISBN 4-89522-132-6.
• Hello, Cars: Where Are You Going? — Notes from an Engineer (Grand Prix Publishing, April 1989). ISBN 4-906189-83-0.
• Hello, F1 Grand Prix: My Notes, 1984–1988 (Miki Shobō, September 1989). ISBN 4-89522-134-2.
• Hello, Cars: My Fragments (Miki Shobō, January 1990). ISBN 4-89522-138-5.
• All Statements on the F1 Grand Prix (Sankaidō, June 1990). ISBN 4-381-07627-3.
• F1 Grand Prix Courses: Racing Across the World’s 16 Rounds (Miki Shobō, June 1991). ISBN 4-89522-151-2.
• All Statements on the F1 Grand Prix 2 (Sankaidō, April 1992). ISBN 4-381-07654-0.
• My Grand Prix Album: To Pass on the Story to Tomorrow (Nigensha, October 1992). ISBN 4-544-04042-6.
• A Lone Hero: 35 Years with Soichiro Honda, Whom I Deeply Admired (Sankaidō, January 1994). ISBN 4-381-07685-0.
• All Statements on the F1 Grand Prix: Final Volume (Sankaidō, April 1994). ISBN 4-381-07691-5.
• CARS: Automobiles, Myself, and the Earth (Nigensha, May 1994). ISBN 4-544-04045-0.
• Formula One: A Summary of 18 Years (Miki Shobō, October 1994). ISBN 4-89522-185-7.
• Formula One: A Summary of 18 Years (Miki Shobō, June 2006). ISBN 4-89522-475-9.
• Formula One: A Summary of 18 Years (Miki Shobō, October 2008). ISBN 978-4-89522-069-9.

• HONDA F1 1964–1968 (Nigensha, July 1984). ISBN 4-544-04027-2.
• Grand Prix Racing: In Search of Glory, 1959–1967 (Miki Shobō, June 1989). ISBN 4-89522-133-4.
• Honda Sports: S360–S800M (Miki Shobō, May 1990). ISBN 4-89522-141-5.
• Ten Years of F1 Racing: The Record, 1981–1990 (Grand Prix Publishing, January 1991). ISBN 4-87687-105-1.
• Honda 360 Story: The Small Giant, 1963–1974 (Miki Shobō, August 1991). ISBN 4-89522-153-9.
• Honda Civic: The Arrival of a Hero (Miki Shobō, December 1992). ISBN 4-89522-165-2.

• Niki Lauda, F1 in the Turbo Era (translated into Japanese). Nigensha, January 1985. ISBN 4-544-04031-0.