About Joe Honda's F1 "Racing Pictorials":

No doubt you’ve seen the cover scans posted by F1tommy in the “New Model Kit Thread" every time that Model Factory Hiro has introduced a new volume in Joe Honda’s “Racing Pictorial” series. Joe continues to go through his photo collection and Hiro publishes a new book (or two) at regular intervals. If you like the cars from the “classic era” of F1, whether you’re a model builder or not, these photos will take you back in time.

After doing books on particular models of F1 cars earlier in the series, Joe’s books now cover an entire season, which may provide thinner coverage but of more cars. But Joe didn’t make every race, and many years are split between two books, so if you’re wondering which races and cars are covered, here is a list of the books in my own collection. I’ve included the number of the book in the series and the month & year of publication:

Grand Prix 1967 – Monaco, Holland, Belgium, France, Britain, Germany, Italy:
Part 01 (No. 28, 07/13) – Honda, Ferrari, Cooper
Part 02 (No. 29, 08/13) – Brabham, BRM, Eagle, McLaren, Matra (F2), Lola (F2)

Grand Prix 1968 – Race of Champions, Spain, Monaco, Belgium, Holland, France, Britain, Germany, Italy:
Part 01 (No. 38, 08/14) – McLaren, Ferrari, Cooper, Brabham, Eagle
Part 02 (No. 39, 09/14) – Lotus, Matra, BRM, Honda, Lola (F2), BMW (F2)

Grand Prix 1969 – Race of Champions, Monaco, Holland, France, Britain, Germany, Italy, U.S.:
(No. 41, 01/15) – Matra, Brabham, Lotus, McLaren, Ferrari, BRM, Cooper, Tecno (F2), BMW (F2), 4WD cars

Grand Prix 1970 – Race of Champions, Spain, Monaco, Belgium, Holland, Britain, Canada, U.S., Mexico:
Part 01 (No. 42, 04/15) – Ferrari, Brabham, Tyrrell, Matra, Surtees
Part 02 (No. 43, 05/15) – Lotus, March, McLaren, BRM, de Tomaso, Bellasi

Grand Prix 1976 – U.S. West, Monaco, Sweden, France, Britain, Germany, Holland, Japan:
(No. 33, 01/14) – All 17 teams, including Kojima & Maki

Grand Prix 1977 – U.S. West, Spain, Monaco, Belgium, Sweden, France, Britain, Austria, Holland, Italy, Canada, U.S., Japan:
Part 01 (No. 35, 05/14) – Lotus, Brabham, Tyrrell, Shadow, Ligier, Ensign, Penske, March, BRM
Part 02 (No. 36, 06/14) – Ferrari, McLaren, Wolf, Fittipaldi, Surtees, Renault, Hesketh, Lec, Kojima

Additional books, which I do not own, cover the years from about 1984 through 1988, with more volumes undoubtedly to follow.

The books are softcover, generally 108 pages, (1976 is 132 pages) of page size 9.1 x 11.7 inches. The photos are roughly 50% color and black-&-white and vary considerably in size (some being really smaller than desirable.) The text is entirely in Japanese, but at least the names of the cars and races are in English, and for each race the team’s results are tabulated. For the modelers, there are some good close-up photos of cars in the paddock, but this varies quite widely between races and teams.

I found a few real gems here. I saw things I had never seen before: 1968 McLarens with outboard pannier fuel tanks that looked a lot like the ones on the original Lancia D50s! Or a (too-small) photo from Spa in 1970 showing Ickx practicing his 312B with no wings, front or rear! (I wish that Joe had included Monza in 1970, but it was not to be.)

You’ll note the inclusion of a few F2 cars from the years that they appeared in Grands Prix. And many of the books end with a few pages of “miscellaneous” photos that show the flavor of race meetings in those days. One minor note: Tyrrell’s 1970 Marches are included in the Tyrrell section, rather than in the March section.

Joe Honda has also started a parallel series called “Sportscar Spectacles” that cover the sports-prototype scene, and the first two cover the 1967 season, a pitched battle between Ferrari, Ford & Porsche. I rather hope that he does 1970 next!

The books are a bit expensive for softcovers in a language that you probably can’t read, but this series (like most things MFH) exudes quality. I buy mine from HobbyLink Japan, which provides fairly quick service at fair prices: Joe Honda Racing Pictorial | HobbyLink Japan.

 

To complete the story, here is the breakdown of the two Sportscar Spectacles books that I've acquired thus far. Here the format is different, since it is divided by race rather than by team:

Sport Prototype 1967:
Part 01 (No. 08, 02/15) - Le Mans Test Day (15 teams), Targa Florio (10 teams), Le Mans 24 Hours (23 teams)
Part 02 (No. 09, 03/15) - Monza 1000 km (8 teams), Spa 1000 km (13 teams), Nurburgring 1000 km (7 teams), BOAC 500 (7 teams)

Of course, many of the smaller teams get very brief coverage, half a page in most cases. And nearly every race has a couple of pages of miscellaneous "snap shots" at the end.

 

Since my original thread, MFH has continued to publish additional Joe Honda books at the rate of nearly one per month, interspersed with their parallel series called “Sportscar Spectacle”. The latest books include:

Grand Prix 1971 – Race of Champions, Spain, Monaco, Holland, Britain, Germany, Austria, Canada, U.S.:
Part 01 (No. 45, 07/15) – Tyrrell, BRM, McLaren, Matra, Surtees
Part 02 (No. 46, 08/15) – Ferrari, March, Lotus, Brabham

Grand Prix 1978 – U.S. West, Monaco, Sweden, France, Britain, Italy:
(No. 44, 06/15) – All 14 teams, with emphasis on Lotus, Ferrari, Brabham, Tyrrell, Wolf & Ligier