Discover the origin of one of Japan’s most successful automotive and engineering brands at the Honda Collection Hall located within the grounds of the Mobility Resort Motegi. Based in Tochigi, Japan, the museum hosts a wide range of cars, bikes and racing sports cars illustrating the evolution of Honda. From the works of Soichiro Honda to Formula 1 cars and the latest range of MotoGP bikes, learn about the innovative technology that drove this now multi-national company forward to become one of the world’s most influential automotive brands. Fans of all things automobiles will enjoy the ever-growing museum experience.

Besides Honda’s incredible vehicles, the museum also traces the company’s journey to the pioneering work in the fields of robotics, air and alternative mobility technology. Guests can learn about the ASIMO humanoid robot, browse design sketches, take part in interactive displays and encounter rare masterpieces from the Garage Collection. With its exhibition space, creative zones, experimental workshops and interactive attractions, the museum offers a lot more than just a typical car museum. In this guide, we take a look at the must-see attractions and the highlights of the Honda Collection Hall.

1. Founding Era Exhibits

Located on the second floor in the South Wing, the founding era exhibits take you back to Honda’s beginnings following the Second World War and the company’s foundation. Everything starts in a small workshop in Hamamatsu, where Soichiro Honda created auxiliary engines for bicycles, including the Cub F-type clip-on motor. These products show his passion and determination to make motorcycles and laid the foundation for Honda as an engineering company. As you peruse the displays, you can see the early Dream bikes, the hallmark Super Cub models and a collection of photographs showing the earliest riding mechanic Honda introduced as an automobile manufacturer. The 1922 Curtiss racing car, on which Honda worked as a young riding mechanic, also is displayed. The exhibits highlight how practical and innovative engineering, a natural thirst for experimentation and unyielding challenge define Honda’s corporate DNA.

Honda’s Founding Era Highlights:

• Post-war engineering beginnings in Hamamatsu
• Famous Cub F-type auxiliary motor
• Early Dream motorcycle exhibits
• Historic Super Cub motorcycle collection
• 1922 Curtiss racing car display

These displays are not simply nostalgic displays of old cars but help you to understand the desire that powered Honda’s earliest successes. The bicycle-mounted auxiliary engines show how the company’s beginnings were rooted in solving issues of practical mobility while the Dream motorcycles and Super Cub show the start of the company’s motorcycle heritage. Old photographs also preserve the details of the workshop where early ideas took root. The 1922 Curtiss racing car also adds a fascinating link to the Honda history as Soichiro Honda’s work as a young riding mechanic working on the car gave him an early experience of motorsport racing and mechanics. Bringing these machines together with photographs and key milestones in Honda history, Honda’s founding years revealed how the desire for technical experimentation began in humble beginnings but gradually grew into a bigger goal of pushing engineering limits.

2. Kei Cars and Historic Small-Car Highlights

The second-floor North Wing celebrates the fascinating world of Japanese kei cars and the Honda brand. These exhibits chart the time when Honda’s path into the world of automobiles was marked by the company’s first road cars that pioneered a more accessible way to get about with compact packaging and innovative engineering. The cars show Honda’s evolving brief for “small” with mass use and clever design. Highlights include the well-loved N360 with its open-sided, practical Vamos van, the tall-boy City hatchback and its unique folding scooter that stows into the boot and the latest in the line-up, the current Super-ONE electric kei car. Towards the end of the timeline are Honda’s past and future achievements with small cars, represented by the first-gen Civic with its ground-breaking CVCC engine and its current stable mate, the all-electric super-economical eNy1.

Historic Small-Car Highlights:

• Classic Honda N360 compact car
• Practical open-sided Honda Vamos
• City hatchback with folding scooter
• Modern Super-ONE electric kei car
• Original Civic featuring CVCC technology

The small-car collection shows how Honda designed compact mobility solutions with an innovative “packaging” and engineering approach. N360 is an important part of Honda’s early automobile history, while the Vamos also shows how practical the kei car can be in everyday life with its simple, straight-forward design, explaining the various approaches Honda was taking to meeting mobility needs. The City hatchback also provides a quirky, memorable feature in the form of a sidekick folding scooter that fits into the boot. This underscores Honda’s concept of having different modes of personal mobility sharing one space. The first-generation Civic is a real standout for its CVCC engine that helped to meet some of the critical emissions issues without compromising driving pleasure. Completing the story today is the modern Super-ONE electric kei vehicle, which takes the small, practical car concept into the electric era.

3. High-Performance Sports Cars

The third floor’s South Wing assembles Honda’s great high-performance road cars spanning the period from around 1985 to the end of the ’90s. This decade was a time of complex technical and development problems which Honda engineers solved in their quest to build engaging sports cars with advanced engineering. Motorsport enthusiasts can explore some of Honda’s most memorable sportscars exemplars of a decasesigns designed to be driven, including the first-generation NSX cars finished in pristine white and in eye-catching red. Right next to them sit the original S-series road cars (these launched in 1963 and show that Honda’s passion for lightweight, high-revving machines was evident long before the NSX). There are also more recent examples such as the Integra Type R, Civic Type R and the S2000 roadster classics of a decade which exemplifies how Honda translated motorsport technology and insight into grounded production cars with high-revving engines and finely honed driving characteristics.

Honda Sports Car Highlights:

• First-generation NSX sports cars
• Original S-series roadsters from 1963
• High-revving Integra Type R
• Performance-focused Civic Type R
• Open-top Honda S2000 roadster

The sports car displays tell the story of how Honda built a performance image based on light weight, quick-responding engine power and finely-tuned chassis. The all-new, first-generation NSX is a key part of that story, since it was the proof that Honda could offer a refined sports car experience that was different from the other performance cars in Honda’s lineup. The engine combined with the NSX’s performance car image demonstrates how Honda had different ways of offering speed and handling for everyday street use. The S-series roadsters offer a link back into history because they show that Honda had a fascination with light weight sports cars as far back as 1963, and other models notably the Integra Type R and Civic Type R brought high-RPM horsepower and motorsports-derived chassis tuning to a wider range of road cars. The S2000 sustained that with its topless body style and performance sport car character.

4. Six Decades of Formula 1 Machines

Honda’s Formula 1 collection takes viewers on a tour through six decades of international open-wheel racing. The displays chart the company’s story from a full constructor in the 1960s through to later successes as an engine supplier. They illustrate the broad engineering expertise Honda acquired while fighting at the very top of racing. The cars range from those used at some of the most famous and distinguishable eras of Formula 1, including the Marlboro McLaren, Camel Lotus and Canon Williams machines that evoke the high-turbo period of the 1980s and early 1990s. They sit alongside Honda’s earliest Grand Prix racing cars and Grand Prix machinery used today by Red Bull Racing. The collection ties the company’s historic accomplishments to the modern day, showcasing the engineering evolution of Formula 1 and Honda’s ongoing participation in the sport. It also reveals the relentless engineering effort needed to stay competitive against the world’s top racing teams.

Formula 1 Collection Highlights:

• Honda’s original 1960s constructor entry
• Iconic Marlboro McLaren racing car
• Historic Camel Lotus racing machine
• Canon Williams high-turbo era cars
• Contemporary Red Bull Racing machinery

This display of the history of Honda in motorsport, from its first grand prix cars to the machinery of the present, captures the time that Honda racing machinery has been present in F1, from manufacturer to supplier. It demonstrates the company’s involvement at all levels of racing and in the evolution of Formula 1. The collection provides fans with a fascinating opportunity to see the history and progress of open-wheel racing machines, and Honda’s racing development over the past 60 years. The collection captures the spirit of ‘take on the world,’ or ‘challenging the limit’ and our ongoing determination to build a better racing machine with a passion to win, from the earliest grand prix cars to the McLaren MP4/4, through to the current Red Bull Racing RB7.

5. Grand Prix and MotoGP Motorcycles

Even those visiting the Collection Hall with a greater interest in cars should take the time to look around the museum’s two-wheeled collection, as it is equally as comprehensive. Around 35 motorcycles from Honda’s motorcycle racing history are on display, from bikes built for some of the most challenging racing circuits the world has to offer, to motorcycles that demonstrate Honda’s history of high performance engineering and precision engineering in global motorsport. The collection comprises of World Championship competition motorcycles from 1961 onwards, Honda’s six-cylinder RC166 which proved that Honda was as competitive at two-wheel racing as they were at car racing and modern MotoGP riders such as the Rothmans-liveried NSR500 two-stroke racers. The entire collection outlines how Honda developed it racing motorcycle technology during each generation of racing machinery, what made Honda a pioneer of this era, and how this relates to the company’s overarching philosophy of performance through technological innovation.

Honda Motorcycle Racing Highlights:

• World championship motorcycles from 1961
• Extraordinary six-cylinder Honda RC166
• High-revving international racing machines
• Rothmans-liveried NSR500 two-stroke racers
• Modern MotoGP competition motorcycles

The motorcycle collection shows how Honda built a solid foundation in international racing through strong engineering and continuous technical evolution. The world championship bikes of 1961 provide a historical point of departure, while the six-cylinder RC166 is an extraordinary example of the company’s racing technology. They exemplify the technical ambition that enabled Honda to go racing early in its history, but the later generation of NSR500 racers offers an alternative perspective on the company’s racing history. Their ‘Rothmans’ liveries and two-stroke engines evoke a different key chapter of competition, and the modern MotoGP racers illustrate the racing activities that continue today. Seeing the motorcycles together helps appreciate the shared values that underpin Honda’s achievements on both two wheels and four. The inherent lightness of construction, extraordinary power delivery and large, detailed components remain central themes throughout the collection.

6. Japanese Touring Cars and Super GT

The Japanese touring car and Super GT displays highlight Honda’s domestic racing programme through a selection of familiar racing cars. These cars are painted in liveries that have become symbolic of Japanese racing and will evoke nostalgia in fans who have played the Japanese racing games that featured many of the models in the exhibits. Unlike the road-going models they are based on, the racing cars are designed purely for competitio their appearance and performance are intended to impress. The exhibits include wide-bodied production-based racers designed to push the boundaries of racing in the toughest competition environments. The cars’ aggressive styling demonstrates how factory road cars could be adapted to become race vehicles built to run at high speeds. Exhibits enable visitors to examine such engineering initiatives up-close. The displays of cars in their racing liveries also demonstrate Honda’s commitment to participating and winning in racing.

Japanese Racing Car Highlights:

• Iconic Japanese touring car exhibits
• Recognisable Super GT racing liveries
• Wide-bodied competition-focused vehicle designs
• Production-based machines transformed for racing
• Honda’s domestic motorsport commitment

The touring car and Super GT display both celebrate the thrill of Japanese circuit racing with unique vehicles built for racing. Their recognition-inducing colours and patterns establish a bridge to the larger story of Japanese motorsport, particularly for those who have seen similar cars on racing simulators, a detail that makes the exhibits more meaningful. Studying the vehicles more closely, the contrast between modern road cars and racing machines is immediately apparent, from wide wheel arches to more aggressive aerodynamic elements and visually stripped-down appearance. These bikes, full of racing spirit, both contribute to Honda’s Japanese motorsport efforts and help demonstrate how a road-going vehicle can be transformed into a true racing machine. For fans, getting close and personal with such vehicles can deepen an understanding of the transformation process for touring cars and Super GT racers.

7. Advanced Robotics and Aviation

The North Wing of the third floor covers Honda’s technological journey from the 2000s up to the present day. This part of the collection charts Honda’s expansion beyond the car and motorcycle into areas such as robotics and other innovative engineering fields. The focal point of the robot section is ASIMO, Honda’s globally recognized humanoid robot, supported by prototype legs which contributed to its development. The collection shows Honda’s innovations in aeronautics through the Honda Jet and explores its work on hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. These examples demonstrate the company’s application of its engineering expertise in areas outside of traditional road transport. Lawn mowers and power generators are located in the same building as Honda’s advanced aeronautics and robot collections, exemplifying the scope of Honda’s work. The show brings these diverse products together and highlights Honda’s desire to tackle new technical challenges across a variety of fields.

Honda’s Technology Highlights:

• World-famous ASIMO humanoid robot
• Prototype legs behind ASIMO development
• HondaJet advanced aviation technology
• Hydrogen fuel cell vehicle exhibits
• Lawn mowers and power generators

Aerospace and robots expand Honda’s story beyond well-known vehicles In aerospace, the Honda Jet takes the story into the world of aviation, while demonstrating Honda’s capabilities in this field. In the robotics section, the ASIMO robot highlights Honda’s innovation in this arena, while the prototype legs on display allow us to see the early work that was carried out on one of its most famous machines. These exhibits show the innovation behind Honda’s introduction of human-friendly technologies and how it constantly works towards developing new engineering possibilities. Moving away from the lawnmower and power generator section, we come to the hydrogen fuel cell vehicles section which demonstrates Honda’s foray into alternative mobility technology. The breadth of products that Honda has worked on, therefore, becomes very apparent when faced by their range of engineering devices from lawnmowers to prototype foot prostheses. Honda has continued to extend its experience and technical interest far beyond cars and motorbikes into other fields.

8. Hands-On Interactive Mobility Experiences

After undergoing a complete renewal in March 2024, the Honda Collection Hall added new attractions for visitors to interact more actively with the museum exhibits. The new attractions are said to begin right from the entrance of the first floor where you’re presented with a life-sized cabin of the Honda Jet Elite II light business jet, instead of simply admiring the aircraft externally, you now can step in the mock-up and walk through the cabin. The fun continues with testing the UNI-ONE personal mobility device on the open floor of the first floor. The new exhibition aims at engaging the visitors with Honda’s mobility beyond bikes and cars. Additionally, the newly-renovated Honda Collection Hall also has a storytelling audio tour which can be listened by scanning the QR code with smartphone or a rental device, relating the stories about Honda’s corporate aspirations and engineering obstacles to overcome that get you closer to the thought process behind the machines.

Interactive Experience Highlights:

• Full-scale HondaJet Elite II mock-up
• Explore the aircraft cabin interior
• Test ride the UNI-ONE device
• Smartphone-accessible storytelling audio tour
• Rental devices available for audio

These hands-on experiences transform the museum visit from a viewing exercise to a more active exploration of Honda’s technology. The cabin mock-up of the Honda Jet Elite II creates a new, sensory dimension to the aviation display by allowing visitors to experience the layout of the aircraft an alternative view of Honda’s jet activities, which complements the static exhibits. The UNI-ONE personal mobility device brings another level of interaction, enabling visitors to experience an actual mobility product rather than observing one. And the storytelling audio tour contextualizes the historical exhibits with accounts of Honda’s corporate ambitions and engineering challenges, which can be enjoyed by visitors’ smartphones or the rental devices. These enhancements introduced at the March 2024 renewal help link Honda’s technological prowess with the ideas, challenges and innovations behind it.

9. Rotating Garage Collection Exhibits

In addition to the core permanent exhibitions, visitors can enjoy access to other, more infrequently exhibited cars and motorcycles. The ‘Garage Collection’ can be found in the hallways on the second and third floors and the exhibits change three times annually, showcasing a selection of treasures taken out of storage. The rotating programme adds an extra dimension of appeal to the collection, especially for enthusiasts keen to further discover Honda’s heritage through more specialised exhibitions. The first of these was ‘CB History Part 1’ showcasing pioneering super sports motorcycles, including the Dream CB750FOUR, alongside classic European rivals from the 50s and 60s. Future displays will include the two-stroke machines with ‘NSR250R The Pedigree of Works Racers’, as well as the full spectrum of NS and NSR models in the hall’s dedicated two-stroke space 50-year celebrations for the Gold Wing, including rare imperial and Valkyrie custom versions and the 25-year milestone of the S2000 open-top sports car.

Garage Collection Highlights:

• Three annual exhibit rotations
• Dream CB750FOUR motorcycle display
• Classic European rivals from earlier decades
• Complete NS and NSR series
• Gold Wing and S2000 anniversaries

The Garage Collection diversifies the museum’s displays, exhibiting unusual motorcycles and themed displays to the public from our collection. Sited on the second- and third-floor hallways, it is well-positioned to make an interesting and meaningful contribution to the permanent exhibits. The programme has three rotations each year, ensuring visitors can see different sides of Honda’s engineering and motorsports history. One current garage display ‘CB History Part 1’ links the Dream CB750FOUR to European bikes from the 1950s and 1960s, while the NSR250R display explores Honda’s NS and NSR series of two-stroke models. Anniversary displays celebrate the Gold Wing and S2000 anniversary collections, while exceptional collection Honda models, including other rare days inspired by the bikes can be viewed in the Garage.

10. The New Library and Design Gallery

The Library and Design Gallery, opened as part of the recent renewal of the Honda Collection Hall, offers a creative space for visitors to relax away from the exhibits of the cars and motorcycles. Cosy library environments encourage visitors who love cars and motorcycles to enjoy a selection of automobile and motorcycle magazines. Visitors can also take a closer look at the wider culture and history of the machines on display throughout the hall in a more laid-back setting. The design gallery is dedicated to the creative process involved in designing Honda’s products, with a selection of genuine design sketches created by Honda designers on display and artworks inspired by mobility. These show the creative ideas which form the precursor to producing the finished vehicle, which we also see in the technical engineering stories elsewhere in the Museum. Events such as workshops further allow visitors to discover the creative side of making cars and motorcycles.

Library and Design Gallery Highlights:

• Extensive automotive and motorcycle magazines
• Comfortable space for enthusiasts
• Authentic sketches by Honda designers
• Mobility-focused artwork and creative displays
• Community workshops and events

The design gallery offers a very different perspective from the museum’s vehicle displays. Its magazine collection means visitors can relax while enjoying sources on motorcycles and cars, providing an ideal stop from walking around exhibits. Our spaces provide a chance for visitors to learn more about the machines and trades that grab their attention, while the variety of comfortable surrounds encourages guests to spend a little more time exploring. The design gallery also offers a more intimate look at how Honda’s vehicles come to life, with original sketches from Honda designers illustrating how ideas progress before they become finished automobiles and bikes, and artwork celebrating the role of transport in fostering creativity. The workshop events strengthen this community space through hands-on experiences with the design process. Overall, the library, artwork and workshops offer a facet of Honda history far removed from engines, power and mechanics. They highlight the creative and engineering partnership that goes into Honda’s eye-catching vehicles.