Ayrton Senna's final Honda F1 V10 engine is up for grabs

F1 Relic Will Be Sold In Disassembled Form

Few names in Formula One history are as evocative as Ayrton Senna, who won three championships in inimitable style with a combination of McLaren chassis and Honda V10 engines that was nearly unbeatable. Well-heeled F1 fans will soon have an opportunity to own a significant piece of that history.

Honda Racing Corporation (HRC), the automaker’s motorsports division, is releasing the last Honda V10 engine raced by Senna. Number V805, a 3.5-liter RA100E engine, will be part of the Bonhams auction at The Quail, one of the anchor events of Monterey Car Week, scheduled for August 15. The sale will kick off HRC’s new memorabilia business, announced this past April, for the sale of vintage cars, engines, and parts.

End Of An Era

The RA100E engine was installed in the McLaren MP4/5B, the team’s 1990 F1 car. That season is famous for the battle between Senna and former teammate Alain Prost, who had moved to Ferrari after a toxic rivalry between the two drivers developed at McLaren. Senna took the driver’s title by crashing into Prost at the penultimate Japanese Grand Prix, while McLaren won the constructor’s championship.

Honda replaced the RA100E V10 with the RA121E V12 for the following season, in which Senna and McLaren once again clinched the driver’s and constructor’s championships, respectively. But the competitiveness of McLaren-Honda dropped off in 1992, and Honda left F1 after that season due to concerns about the unstable Japanese economy.

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The V12s’ short competitive life means they’re not as fondly remembered as Honda’s F1 V10s, which represent the automaker’s peak in the sport. McLaren-Honda was the dominant force in F1 during the late 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s, winning the constructors’ championship every year except 1992. And Honda powered all three of Senna’s driver’s titles.

Perfect For Your Living Room

RA100E engine number V805 was used by Senna during a warmup sessions for the fateful 1990 Japanese Grand Prix, but not during the race in which Senna crashed into Prost. It was then used as Senna’s race engine during the 1990 Australian Grand Prix—the last race of the season, and Honda’s V10 era.

According to a Honda press release, F1 engines from that era are usually returned to Japan, taken apart to look for wear and fatigue, and then discarded. But because the focus had already shifted to next season’s V12 by the time engine V805 was built, it was left intact and forgotten in a warehouse until last year, according to the auction listing.

This engine won’t be sold in its original state, though. It was disassembled and placed in a display case, making it all the easier to admire the engineering of one of F1’s greatest eras. If you have space in your living room and a spare $80,000-$120,000 (the Bonhams’ estimated hammer-price range), it can be yours.