Honda’s F1 racecar becomes a $29k scale replica

Amalgam Collection is helping Honda celebrate 60 years since its first Formula victory with a painstakingly detailed replica of the RA272 racer that Richie Ginther drove to victory at the 1965 Mexican Grand Prix.

The limited edition reproduces the car in a 1:8 scale and costs an eye-watering $28,995. It is based on a digital scan of the original car kept in the automaker’s museum in Japan, as well as hundreds of historical photos. It comprises 1,600 individual parts that reportedly took 4,500 hours to create. Even so, actually piecing together one such replica takes another 450 hours, explaining why Amalgam won’t be making more than 30 of them.

Those who would rather not shoot a hole through their wallet may get a 1:18 scale model priced at a more or less reasonable $1,735 and available in 300 units. Both replicas are bundled with a special storage case, an authenticity certificate and a memorable booklet signed by Honda Racing Corporation CEO Koji Watanabe. Visitors to the Monterey Car Week will be able to grab a copy starting today, August 15th, while online sales won’t begin until a few days later.

For a bit of historical context, the Formula 1 season of 1965 was the Honda team’s second in its career. The company supplied the team with a new chassis called the RA272, improving upon the last year’s RA271 design with further weight reduction measures and a stronger engine. The transversely mounted V12 had only 1.5 liters of displacement but could rev up to 12,000 RPM and output up to 230 PS (227 hp / 169 kW), making it the most powerful engine on the Formula track that season. It had taken three years to design and build, and preceded the creation of Honda as a car company itself. It was the first time in history that Japan won a Formula championship, and you could say that the country’s entire automotive industry got a kickstart from it.