Honda's first-generation Formula One effort with the RA273 was plagued by weight. The car tipped the scales at around 740 kg against a 500 kg minimum, making it nearly fifty percent overweight and killing its competitiveness despite a powerful 3,000 cc V12 engine. Honda driver John Surtees, who had extensive experience in Lola machinery through the Can-Am championship in the Lola T70, arranged for Lola's chief designer Eric Broadley to design a new chassis. Broadley based the new car on a previous Lola Indianapolis 500 design, the T90, internally designating the result the T130. Honda labelled it the RA300.
The results were dramatic. By retaining the proven RA273E V12 engine — a 48-valve unit with cylinder dimensions of 78.0 x 52.2 mm and a displacement of 2,993 cc — while shedding hundreds of kilograms through the Broadley-designed structure, Honda brought the car's weight down to approximately 590–610 kg. The engine at Monza in 1967 was quoted by contemporary sources at around 396 bhp with improved torque and throttle response, while Honda's own figures claimed over 420 PS at 11,500 rpm. The car was still demonstrably lighter and far better-handling than the machine it replaced.
The RA300 made its World Championship debut at the 1967 Italian Grand Prix at Monza, and the result was extraordinary. John Surtees won the race — but the manner of the victory underlined both the car's potential and its limitations. Surtees took the lead only on the final lap, after Jim Clark's Lotus ran out of fuel and Jack Brabham's Brabham ran wide. The RA300 led the race for exactly one lap — the lap it needed to cross the finish line first.
That single lap of leading remains a permanent entry in the Formula One record books. The Honda RA300 is the only Formula One car ever to win its first World Championship Grand Prix on the only lap it ever led in competition. The statistic is both a testament to opportunism and a reminder that the car's pace was never consistently at the front of the field.
Surtees rounded out the 1967 season by finishing fourth at the Mexican Grand Prix, confirming the RA300 as a genuine upgrade over the RA273 even if not yet a championship contender.
The RA300 made one further World Championship appearance, at the season-opening 1968 South African Grand Prix, where Surtees finished eighth. It was then superseded by the Honda RA301, a design closely based on the RA300 and again developed in partnership with Lola.
The RA300 occupies a significant place in Honda's motorsport history as the car that proved the Japanese manufacturer could win at the highest level of single-seater racing. It also demonstrated that successful collaboration between Japanese engineering ambition and established British chassis expertise could produce results quickly. The "Hondola" partnership foreshadowed later arrangements in which Honda would supply engines or technical backing to established constructors, a model that would define much of the company's subsequent Formula One involvement.
The engine that powered the RA300 had first appeared in the RA273 at the 1966 Italian Grand Prix, driven by Richie Ginther. By the time it propelled Surtees to victory at Monza a year later, it had matured into a more tractable unit — still extraordinary in its ability to spin the rear tyres at 100 mph in third gear, but now housed in a chassis worthy of its power.