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50 free Honda trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Honda started in a 16-square-metre shack bolting surplus radio-generator engines onto bicycles. Today it is the largest motorcycle maker on earth, builds more internal combustion engines than anyone, flies its own business jet and has won Formula One titles with three different eras of engine. Its founder forged his school seal from a bicycle pedal and never finished engineering school. These 50 questions cover the whole story: the piston rings Toyota rejected, the Bata Bata, the T360 kei truck, the slogan that sold America on motorcycles, the Super Cub's 100 million units, the Civic and the Corolla, the CR-V's real name, the NSX's aluminium body, the oval-piston NR500, Freddie Spencer and Mike Hailwood, the first Indy 500 win, ASIMO's height and retirement, the HondaJet's shoe-inspired nose, the Motocompo and Madness, the Cog advert's 100 takes, Mr. Opportunity, and the V8 that Honda answered with a case of vegetable juice. Easy ones ask about Acura; hard ones ask who invented VTEC. Every answer is cited to a page we checked, with a short explanation so you learn something even when you miss. Play it solo or print it for a car-club quiz night.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which year did Soichiro Honda found the Honda Technical Research Institute?
1946
He funded it by selling the remains of his piston-ring firm for ¥450,000 after the war.
Q 02What did Soichiro Honda's prewar company Tōkai Seiki make for Toyota?
Piston rings
Toyota dropped the first batch for poor quality, then took a 40% stake once the product was fixed.
Q 03Why was Honda's first engine, the A-Type, nicknamed the "Bata Bata"?
The sound it made
It began as a copy of surplus Tohatsu radio-generator engines bolted onto bicycles.
Q 04Which business partner handled finance and marketing alongside Soichiro Honda until 1973?
Takeo Fujisawa
The two stepped down together in October 1973 after a partnership that began in 1949.
Q 05What was Honda's first production automobile, launched in August 1963?
T360 kei truck
Its 356 cc engine slotted it into Japan's cheap kei tax bracket; the S500 sports car followed two months later.
Q 06Which Honda is the most-produced motor vehicle in history, passing 100 million units in 2017?
Super Cub
In continuous production since 1958, it is an underbone bike with a single-cylinder engine of 49 to 124 cc.
Q 07Which slogan fronted the 1960s US motorcycle campaign made with Grey Advertising?
You meet the nicest people on a Honda
It pushed back on the outlaw-biker stereotype; by the end of 1963 alone Honda had sold 90,000 bikes.
Q 08Which luxury brand did Honda launch in March 1986, the first from a Japanese automaker?
Acura
Its Legend flagship prompted Toyota and Nissan to answer with luxury marques of their own.
Q 09Which 1990 Honda sports car was the first production car with an all-aluminium semi-monocoque?
NSX
Its name began as NS-X, for New Sports car eXperimental, and Ayrton Senna gave input in development.
Q 10What does the robot name ASIMO stand for?
Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility
It grew out of the experimental E-series and P-series walking robots Honda built from 1986.
Q 11How tall was Honda's ASIMO robot?
130 cm
Honda judged that height ideal for working door knobs and light switches; it weighed 54 kg.
Q 12In what year did ASIMO make its last active appearance before Honda retired it?
2022
Honda shifted its effort to remote-controlled, avatar-style robots.
Q 13Where are the HondaJet's two turbofan engines unusually mounted?
On pylons above the wing
The layout frees up cabin space and cuts drag; the fuselage is composite and the wing aluminium.
Q 14In which US city is the Honda Aircraft Company based?
Q 21Which rider gave Honda its first Grand Prix motorcycle wins in 1961?
Mike Hailwood
Honda had first entered the Isle of Man TT in 1959 with five bikes.
Q 22Who won Honda's first 500 cc Grand Prix world championship in 1983?
Freddie Spencer
He rode the NS500, Honda's first two-stroke racer, introduced the previous season.
Q 23What was unusual about the cylinders of Honda's 1979 NR500 racing bike?
They were oval
Each "race-track" cylinder had eight valves and two connecting rods to fight the dominant two-strokes; the experiment failed.
Greensboro, North Carolina
The proof-of-concept jet first flew there on 3 December 2003.
Q 15Designer Michimasa Fujino said the HondaJet's nose was inspired by what?
Salvatore Ferragamo shoes
Honda began sketching the jet in 1997 and finally delivered the first one in December 2015.
Q 16At which 1965 race did Honda take its first Formula One victory?
Mexican Grand Prix
Honda had entered F1 in 1964, building both engine and chassis just a year after its first road cars.
Q 17Which driver won the 2021 Formula One title with Honda power at Red Bull?
Max Verstappen
Honda formally left after that season but kept supplying Red Bull's power units through 2025.
Q 18Which team did Honda rejoin Formula One with as a works power-unit partner in 2026?
Aston Martin
Honda's 1980s glory years came as engine supplier to Williams and McLaren, with six constructors' titles.
Q 19In which year did Honda win the Indianapolis 500 for the first time?
2004
From 2006 to 2011 Honda was the IndyCar series' only engine supplier.
Q 20Which famous Japanese race track, opened in 1962, does Honda own?
Suzuka Circuit
Honda also built Twin Ring Motegi in 1997; both are run by its Honda Mobilityland arm.
Q 24Which 1969 Honda is regarded as the first motorcycle to be called a "superbike"?
CB750
Its transverse inline-four layout became the template for the Universal Japanese Motorcycle.
Q 25In which Ohio town were Gold Wing touring motorcycles assembled from 1980 to 2010?
Marysville
Production moved to Kumamoto, Japan, in 2011 using tooling shipped from the American plant.
Q 26In which year did the first-generation Civic go on sale?
1972
It launched as a two-door fastback in July with a 1,169 cc transverse engine and front-wheel drive.
Q 27Which rival is the only Japanese nameplate to outlast the Civic continuously in North America?
Toyota Corolla
The Corolla arrived in 1966, six years before its Honda rival.
Q 28According to Honda, what does "CR-V" stand for?
Comfortable Runabout Vehicle
The "Compact Recreational Vehicle" reading came from a British review that Honda republished.
Q 29Which Honda was the first commercial hybrid car sold in the US, beating the Prius by a month?
Insight
Its 70 mpg highway rating made it the most fuel-efficient mass-produced car of its day; only about 18,000 sold.
Q 30Which Honda pickup won Motor Trend's Truck of the Year for 2006?
Ridgeline
The redesigned Civic took Car of the Year the same year, a rare double for one maker.