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Yoshio Nakamura (engineer)

Yoshio Nakamura
Yoshio Nakamura (left) in conversation with John Surtees at the 1968 Dutch Grand Prix
Born(1918-09-08)8 September 1918
Died3 December 1994(1994-12-03) (aged 76)
OccupationFormula One engineer in Honda F1 racing
EmployerFormula One Group

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

Life

After attending Yamaguchi Junior High School and Yamaguchi High School, he entered the Department of Aeronautics (Engineering Specialization) 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. At the same time, he 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 "Hawk Dragon". After the war, he moved to Japan National Combustion Machinery Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (later Tokyu Kurogane Kogyo, now Nissan Koki Co., Ltd. ), a three-wheeled vehicle manufacturer, 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, Nakamura was ordered by Honda Soichiro to step down from his position as F1 team manager to focus on the development of production cars, but returned to his role ahead of the final race, the Mexican Grand Prix . At the Mexican Grand Prix, held at an altitude of over 2,000 meters above sea level, Nakamura's knowledge and experience as an aircraft engine developer proved to be of great use, as 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 won).

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 motorsports activities due to sluggish 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 organization, including co-developing a chassis with British racing car constructor Lola . Perhaps this was a success, as 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 team faced a series of problems, including the impact of Honda Soichiro's decision to enter the Honda RA302, an air-cooled engine , and the results were poor. 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, it is said that this was because he was in such conflict with Soichiro Honda over F1 activities that 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 his death in 1994. After his death, Motor Fan published a manuscript he had written in preparation for his death.[4]

Relationship with Soichiro Honda

The relationship between Nakamura and Honda is difficult to explain. First of all, 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 there are many biographies written by third parties as a "man of ambition," which is based on a different premise from Nakamura's writing, which is written from the perspective of an engineer. And while Honda's image was created in this way for the general public, in the world of motorsports and cars, where there are many "enthusiasts," it is common that after 10 years, unofficial stories like "actually, back then..." will start to appear in magazines and the like. After a certain point, stories like the air-cooled version will be recounted more than once, and even follow-up will be necessary. 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 completely than there were issues on which we disagreed and I, as an employee, had to give in."[6] Of course, on the other hand, 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." Therefore, rather than interpreting each episode or the remaining descriptions at face value, it is necessary to understand the context and context before and after each episode, which is not easy.[7]

"I can respect him as a person, but not as an engineer," he said, and the relationship between the two men was far from good. Nakamura was not just involved in F1 activities; he was also responsible for Honda's production car development. In 1964, the first year of F1 participation, he led the team and visited the production sites, but the following year, he remained at headquarters to focus on production car development and was responsible for the foundation of production four-wheel vehicles. This situation became a source of friction with Honda. Honda's insistence on air-cooled engines, not only in the F1 car, which was dubbed the "running laboratory," but also in production cars, was a detriment to Honda Motors. Honda's lack of understanding of science and engineering, coupled with the fact that Honda had immense authority over development and that engineers had no choice but to follow his decisions (e.g., Nakamura's Honda Civic was rejected, while Honda's proposal for the air-cooled Honda 1300 was approved). Disgusted with working under such a president, Nakamura decided to quit. 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 that he never met Honda. Furthermore, 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]

Work

  • 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.

Co-authored works

  • 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.

Translations

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

References

  1. ^ a b Nakamura 1996, pp. 194.
  2. ^ Nakamura 1996, pp. 21.
  3. ^ Nakamura 1996, pp. 174.
  4. ^ Ebisawa 1992, pp. 271.
  5. ^ Maema 1996, pp. 561–562.
  6. ^ Maema 1996, pp. 536.
  7. ^ Maema 1996, pp. 547.
  8. ^ Maema 1996, pp. 560.

Bibliography

  • Nakamura, Yoshio (1996). 中村良夫自伝 (in Japanese). Tokyo: Miki Shobo. ISBN 4-89522-199-7.
  • Maema, Takanori (1996). マン・マシンの昭和伝説 航空機から自動車へ (上) (in Japanese). Tokyo: Kodansha Bunko. ISBN 4-06-263176-8.
  • Ebisawa, Yasuhisa (1992). F1 Dreams on the Ground. Tokyo: Asahi Shimbun.
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