50 years of the Suzuka circuit
10/07/2012
One of the world's most challenging and most popular race tracks among racing drivers was completed in 1962 in Japan, 250 km south of Tokyo, as a test track on behalf of car manufacturer Honda.
The Dutchman Hans Hugenholtz (31.10.1914 - 25.3.1995) was commissioned with the layout and construction of the Suzuka circuit. He came to this assignment in the land of the setting sun after having made a name for himself with the reconstruction of Zandvoort (1948) and the Hockenheim Motodrom. Nivelles (Belgium), Zolder (Belgium) and Jarama (Spain) were added later.
The Suzuka circuit is still highly regarded by F1 drivers today. It is characterized by a large number of corners of varying speeds. One very special combination is the meandering, which consists of a combination of three left-hand and two right-hand corners in the first part of the track, all of which are at different speeds.
This year, the circuit is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary and a big event with many historic racing cars is being organized at the end of November to mark this milestone. A small foretaste of this is an exhibition stand on the occasion of today's F1 Grand Prix with the Honda RA300 from 1967/68 and six other F1 racing cars with Honda power.
The "spaghetti exhaust", which was once used to guide the exhaust gases from the engine to the rear of the RA300, is still a feast for the eyes today, as the photos show.
