A bitter story on a beautiful car.
This is, as many of you know, the Hino Samurai.
Designed by the legendary racing car designer Pete Brock (who you see driving the car through the Fuji paddock) on his way towards the scrutineering area for the 1967 Japanese Grand Prix.
This is, sadly, where the story of the Samurai ends in Japan.
You see, the car was so low that a protruding oil pan underneath the car caused it to fail the minimum height check.
On top of that, during the 13.5m turning radius check (all cars had to be able to easily get through the test), the Samurai once again failed.
Usually, the organizers at Fuji would give participants some time to possibly fix these issues ahead of the qualifying sessions, but this time, inexplicably - they didn't.
Close to 60 years on from this sad day, Brock himself still states that politics at the time prevented him from being allowed to run the Samurai in the Grand Prix.
Naturally being rather upset, the Hino team left the circuit without ever running a single lap at Fuji Speedway.
Lets briefly go over the car's specifications:
The car was powered by a Hino Contessa 1300 i4 of 1293cc, equipped with triple Solex PPH2 twin carburetors, which produced an estimated 110hp.
This was put on a magnesium MK4b chassis by the American manufacturer Le Grand. Building sportscars upon the chassis of formula cars wasn't all that uncommon at the time, with the Prince R380 being built upon a Brabham BT8 chassis.
Aside from the sleek, low and aerodynamically efficient design, Pete Brock had another ace up his sleeve; the rear wing.
You see, this rear wing was movable via a simple wire connection, being able to rotate in such a way that the wing would be able to point upwards - theoretically generating drag and helping the car's handling through turns.
We say theoretically, as it wasn't ever put into practice after the disqualification.
Lastly, the tires were big Firestone Indy racing tires, sized 500/9.00-13 at the front and 600/10.5-13 at the rear.
Contemporary reports describe these as truly being massive compared to those on it's would-be rival, the Daihatsu P-5.
So what happened to the Samurai?
Documentation becomes a bit vague after the 1967 Grand Prix, some speculate that the car was demolished by Hino, others state that the car went to California with Pete Brock that same year.
However, there is one curious fact that will surprise many: 4 years after the disqualification at the Japanese Grand Prix, the Samurai was spotted at Riverside, racing in small sportscar events!
Whether or not this was the real Samurai is often debated upon but have to wonder; if it is a replica, how come it looks so proportionally correct?
As plenty of fellow petrolheads know, replicas of famous sportscars often look slightly "off", even for the cars with plenty of documentation available.
So how come someone in America built a 1/1 replica of a car that was never raced, from a country on the other side of the Pacific?
One final question remains. Where is it now?
This question was curiously answered by Pete Brock himself, who mentioned that the car was restored by a Japanese man living in LA, who kept it hidden in a garage to this very day.
Whether or not this story has any truth to it remains to be seen, but , like many others, do hope to see the Hino Samurai return one day.
click to enlarge
This is, as many of you know, the Hino Samurai.
Designed by the legendary racing car designer Pete Brock (who you see driving the car through the Fuji paddock) on his way towards the scrutineering area for the 1967 Japanese Grand Prix.
This is, sadly, where the story of the Samurai ends in Japan.
You see, the car was so low that a protruding oil pan underneath the car caused it to fail the minimum height check.
On top of that, during the 13.5m turning radius check (all cars had to be able to easily get through the test), the Samurai once again failed.
Usually, the organizers at Fuji would give participants some time to possibly fix these issues ahead of the qualifying sessions, but this time, inexplicably - they didn't.
Close to 60 years on from this sad day, Brock himself still states that politics at the time prevented him from being allowed to run the Samurai in the Grand Prix.
Naturally being rather upset, the Hino team left the circuit without ever running a single lap at Fuji Speedway.
Lets briefly go over the car's specifications:
The car was powered by a Hino Contessa 1300 i4 of 1293cc, equipped with triple Solex PPH2 twin carburetors, which produced an estimated 110hp.
This was put on a magnesium MK4b chassis by the American manufacturer Le Grand. Building sportscars upon the chassis of formula cars wasn't all that uncommon at the time, with the Prince R380 being built upon a Brabham BT8 chassis.
Aside from the sleek, low and aerodynamically efficient design, Pete Brock had another ace up his sleeve; the rear wing.
You see, this rear wing was movable via a simple wire connection, being able to rotate in such a way that the wing would be able to point upwards - theoretically generating drag and helping the car's handling through turns.
We say theoretically, as it wasn't ever put into practice after the disqualification.
Lastly, the tires were big Firestone Indy racing tires, sized 500/9.00-13 at the front and 600/10.5-13 at the rear.
Contemporary reports describe these as truly being massive compared to those on it's would-be rival, the Daihatsu P-5.
So what happened to the Samurai?
Documentation becomes a bit vague after the 1967 Grand Prix, some speculate that the car was demolished by Hino, others state that the car went to California with Pete Brock that same year.
However, there is one curious fact that will surprise many: 4 years after the disqualification at the Japanese Grand Prix, the Samurai was spotted at Riverside, racing in small sportscar events!
Whether or not this was the real Samurai is often debated upon but have to wonder; if it is a replica, how come it looks so proportionally correct?
As plenty of fellow petrolheads know, replicas of famous sportscars often look slightly "off", even for the cars with plenty of documentation available.
So how come someone in America built a 1/1 replica of a car that was never raced, from a country on the other side of the Pacific?
One final question remains. Where is it now?
This question was curiously answered by Pete Brock himself, who mentioned that the car was restored by a Japanese man living in LA, who kept it hidden in a garage to this very day.
Whether or not this story has any truth to it remains to be seen, but , like many others, do hope to see the Hino Samurai return one day.
click to enlarge
