Honda RC110

The Honda RC110 was the Honda racing team's first 50 cc Grand Prix motorcycle racer, conceived in 1961 and raced during the 1962 season. It was developed during the season and renamed the RC111, and most surviving Honda records do not distinguish between the two. The engine was an advanced four-stroke single, sometimes described as a shrunken half of an RC145, with its cylinder inclined at 35 degrees, two overhead camshafts in a four-valve head driven by spur gears, a claimed 9.5 bhp at 14,000 rpm and a gearbox that grew from five to six speeds. Shown at the Tokyo Motor Show in November 1961, it made its Grand Prix debut at the 1962 Spanish Grand Prix, where the two-stroke opposition easily out-gunned it, and despite a huge factory effort it won only a single Grand Prix.