The goal was to surpass BMW's in-line 4-cylinder engine, the M12/7, which was a regular win in the same category at the time.
At that time, the in-line 4-cylinder BMW M12 / 7 was overwhelmingly strong in F2, so the goal was to overcome this, and unlike the conventional Honda engine for F1, which had been difficult, the number of revolutions was increased.
Kawamoto avoids the shackles of mass production, determines the bore x stroke and combustion chamber shape, outputs even in the low rotation range, and as an engine that can increase the rotation to 12000 rpm with a margin, the valve pinch angle is better than Duckworth.
In 1980, the Honda engine was installed in the Ralt RH6 and started participating in the European F2 Championship in the middle of the season.
In Japan (All-Japan F2 Championship), Satoru Nakajima from Tetsu Ikuzawa's I&I Racing participated in Ralt RH6 and March 812.
In Europe, a new Spirit Racing was established with Honda's investment, and its leaders were composed of Kawamoto scouting from March Engineering.
Since the Honda-equipped team is no longer limited to Ralt, we prepared 10 engines for Europe and performed maintenance with the cooperation of Judd.
Nakajima and I&I also made an expedition to Europe and took second place on the podium at the opening Silverstone Circuit.
Palmer won the championship, and Thackwell continued in second place in the series to dominate the season.
In Japan, Geoff Lees, who participated from Team Ikuzawa, won the series championship.
The RA264E recorded 128 dB as measured by the Japan Automobile Federation (JAF), so it was decided to wear a JAF-certified muffler to participate in the race.
The basic structure is to make a large number of holes with a diameter of about 5 mm from the tip of the conventional exhaust pipe to the entire circumference of 30 cm in length, wrap the circumference with asbestos, and wrap the asbestos in a pipe with a large diameter.
At this part, the pipe diameter is increased to reduce the exhaust pressure, and asbestos is used to absorb it.
With this shape, it is possible to maintain the same dimensions as the inner diameter of the conventional pipe, and it became a silencer that can reduce the volume while avoiding the increase in size.
Since BMW reduced the engine supply with the developmental end of European F2, in Japan, besides Ikusawa and Nakajima, Hoshino Racing, who was a BMW user until then, also overthrew and hoped for the same Honda engine aiming for Nakajima, Honda from this year Became a user.
And on the engine side, F2, which was a confrontation composition between Honda and BMW, will be fighting with the newly entered Yamaha OX66.
The shape and contents of the muffler have been changed to comply with the stricter exhaust volume regulations than in 1985.