It was a phone call that I won't soon forget. Kurt Antonius, Honda's senior manager of public relations for North America, had left a message on my voicemail asking if I could give him a call at my earliest convenience. It's rare that I hear from Kurt. Considering he is ultimately responsible for every aspect of Honda's PR machine, including its motorsports program, to say he's a busy guy is an understatement. Needless to say, I returned the call pronto.
Was he going to ask about the Twins? We've had two Honda project cars for more than a year. We were supposed to have them for a few months, which meant they should have been back to Honda at the beginning of the year. Perhaps news of our inability to get the Twins returned to stock for return delivery had reached top management. While I was waiting on hold for Kurt to finish up another phone call, I struggled to come up with ideas to convince him to keep Super Street off Honda's bad list. Armed with several feeble excuses, I waited for the inevitable.
Imagine my surprise when Kurt got on the phone and proceeded to ask if I'd be interested in learning more about Honda's worldwide operations. Would I be interested, he asked, in accompanying a small group of Honda personnel and automotive journalists to Japan for an up-close-and-personal look at Honda's headquarters? We'd get to tour the head office, as well as one of its research and development facilities. In addition to the working segment of the trip, Kurt said there may be an opportunity to drive a few Japanese-market cars, and even get behind the wheel of a real Honda-powered race car. Oh, and we'd also get to stay and watch the CART race at Honda's Twin Ring Motegi motorsports complex. It took me all of two seconds to say, "Yes, please."
The trip turned out to be the highlight of my career. In a scant nine days, I acquired more knowledge about one of the cornerstones of our industry than I could have ever learned on my own. All the books, magazine articles, and newspaper clips in the world can't give you the insight of actually seeing an operation like Honda firsthand. I'm sure it's a scenario that is repeated in many automotive manufacturers throughout the world; it's just that I haven't been given the opportunity to witness it for myself. I came away from my trip with knowledge and insight that I hope will make me a better editor and a better representative for our industry.
That's all well and good, but how is any of that interesting to you, our reader? I spent a lot of time trying to come up with a story angle. Much of what I saw was confidential, so I couldn't write about it if I wanted to. Much of what I experienced could not be repeated by an average Honda fan. Even if you (or I) wanted to go back to Japan and do it all again, we couldn't (without permission, of course). So how to present it so it makes sense to our audience? Then it hit me. It's so simple. Part of our job as editors of this little mag is to expose you to things that you might otherwise not be aware of. It could be trends from another part of the country or race results from the other coast. What we do is bring you cool stuff as it relates to the world of Super Street. There it was. Simple. So here are some of the highlights of my trip to Japan. It's cool stuff personified.