Founded by Soichiro Honda in 1948 as a motorized bicycle company, the Honda Motor Company is the fifth largest producer of automobiles in the world today.
Honda started producing cars in 1960. Through the energy crisis of the 1970s and recession of the 1980s Honda grew at a staggering rate, being seen especially in North America as the correct type of car for those troubled times. 2008 was a year of tremendous loss for most major car companies, but Honda was one of the few to show a profit.
Soichiro Honda loved to race, and Honda has always participated at the very highest levels of racing, entering F1 in 1964. They have since won three Grand Prixs - in 1965, 1967, and 2006. Honda is also perhaps the most important player in IndyCar; supplying all of Indy’s engines since 2006, when for the first time in history the Indianapolis 500 was run without a single engine problem.