Episode Details

Soichiro Honda had no engineering degree, no business training, and no patience for convention. He strapped a surplus radio generator engine to a bicycle, sold enough motorized bikes to fund a factory, and built Honda Motor Company into one of the largest manufacturers on earth — all while feuding with Japan's bureaucracy, which tried to stop him from making cars at all.

This episode traces Honda from his blacksmith father's workshop through the piston ring failures, the motorized bicycle, and the racing obsession that drove a motorcycle company to challenge the global auto industry.

• Honda's self-taught engineering and the piston ring factory that failed before it succeeded
• The motorized bicycle that launched Honda Motor Company from postwar rubble
• MITI's attempt to block Honda from manufacturing cars and his defiance
• The racing obsession that drove Honda's engineering culture and global expansion