Honda

Soichiro Honda began by fitting war-surplus engines to bicycles. The Type R credo, reliable, rev-happy engines, emerged from Soichiro's philosophy of precision engineering over raw displacement. The Civic (1972) became an international standard for small cars. The Accord (1976) helped Honda establish US production. The NSX (1990), engineered with input from Ayrton Senna, was the world's first all-aluminium unibody sports car and challenged Ferrari and Porsche at a fraction of the price. Honda pioneered VTEC variable valve timing, enabling small engines to feel alive at high revs. Civic Type R, Integra Type R, and S2000 became driver's car benchmarks. Honda and Acura produce the second-generation NSX (2017) as a hybrid supercar.