Tamiya's Honda RC166 Model Kit Is As Bonkers As The Real Thing

Tamiya's attention to detail lends itself well to the engineering masterpiece that is the RC166 GP racer.

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Jason Marker

By: Jason Marker

Sep 23, 2022 at 3:13pm ET

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Honda's RC166 was an absolutely bonkers racing motorcycle. Campaigned by the one and only Mike Hailwood in 1966 and 1967, the tiny, mighty GP bike was powered by an air-cooled, four-stroke, 250cc, DOHC, 24-valve inline-six. Yes, indeed, a 250cc inline-six. It breathed in through six carburetors roughly the size of your thumb, and out through a six-into-six megaphone exhaust. It had an eye-watering 20,000 rpm redline but did most of its work around 18,000 rpm where it developed about 62 horsepower. In a bike that weighed 247 pounds. Madness.

Founded in Shizouka, Japan, in 1946, Tamiya Corporation is one of the best makers of plastic model kits in the world. Renowned for its high-quality, high-detail model kits, Tamiya makes everything from model cars and airplanes to radio-controlled vehicles and programmable robots. It even produces its own line of high-quality paints, glues, and other modeling supplies. In the scale modeling world, the company has a reputation for its high standards, attention to detail, and fantastic engineering—much like Honda.

What do you get, then, when you bring these two Japanese engineering powerhouses together? You get Tamiya's insanely detailed 1/12 scale RC166 kit, a kit which the genius behind the Easy Modeler's Room YouTube channel tackles in this very compelling video.

Now, watching a random Japanese dude build a model motorcycle may not be your cup of tea, but I highly recommend you give this one a try. The video presents our man's step-by-step construction of the model and its addition to a very cool motorcycle garage diorama. His technique is flawless, his choices are interesting, and his narration—translated and subtitled in English for us non-Japanese speakers—is sparse yet informative. At the end of the video, he ends up with a display that would look good gracing a Honda executive's office.