Honda will also find new homes for some heritage IndyCars and MotoGP bikes.
A 1990 Honda F1 V10 engine, taken to pieces and laid out neatly
This is a Honda RA100E 3.5 L V10 engine. It was used in McLaren's 1990 F1 season, during which time the team won the constructors championship and Ayrton Senna won the driver's title. Credit: Honda Racing Corporation
Honda's motorsport division must be doing some spring cleaning. Today, the Honda Racing Corporation announced that it's getting into the memorabilia business, offering up parts and even whole vehicles for fans and collectors. And to kick things off, it's going to auction some components from the RA100E V10 engines that powered the McLaren Honda MP4/5Bs of Ayrton Senna and Gerhard Berger to both F1 titles in 1990.
"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 Koi Watanabe, president of HRC, "including our fans to own a part of Honda's racing history is not intended to be a one-time endeavor, but rather a continuous business that we will nurture and grow."
The bits from Senna's and Berger's V10s will go up for auction at Monterey Car Week later this year, and the lots will include some of the parts seen in the photo above: cam covers, camshafts, pistons, and conrods, with a certificate of authenticity and a display case. And HRC is going through its collections to see what else it might part with, including "heritage machines and parts" from IndyCar, and "significant racing motorcycles."
The fact that the parts are going to be auctioned at Car Week suggests the RA100E parts won't be cheap—the annual gathering in Northern California attracts extremely well-heeled car enthusiasts, and the tickets for events like the Quail or the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance will put a hefty dent in your wallet.
If your idea of fun isn't hanging out with a bunch of the 0.1 percent at a golf course looking at pre-war cars—and I'll admit the lure of Car Week has worn pretty thin on me these last few years—and your budget is more down to earth, fear not: F1 components are still within reach via an Etsy vendor in the UK.
An F1 gearbox gear, turned into a coin tray, with coins and a battery and some paper clips on it
There's been some inflation in 12 years, but you can find F1 parts as gifts for under $100. Credit: Ledon Gifts
I've had a coin tidy made from the 1st gear of one of Honda's late-2000s F1 cars sitting on my desk for 12 years now, and I can report it makes the most satisfying noise if you roll it back and forth along the gear teeth when you should be working.