Invincible in his final world championship campaign Hailwood again heads for victory on the Isle of Man aboard the RC166 Honda Six.

Despite investing the biggest in-period budget in the Honda grand prix racing team, Soichiro Honda didn’t realise his dream of winning the 250cc World Championship with an air-cooled four-stroke until Mike Hailwood was re-united with the team, five years after giving them their first world title.

At just 21 years of age, Hailwood’s boundless talent enabled him to give the Japanese manufacturers their breakthrough in world chamionship racing on a privately entered four-cylinder 250cc machine.

But when Honda presented Mike’s wealthy father with a bill for air-freighting the factory machine to Europe, despite his historic season, the relationship was broken and Hailwood  defected to rival Italian manufacturer’s MV where he thrived for the next four years.

When Hailwood returned to Honda, his unrivalled skill gave the team the cutting edge needed to hold the two-stroke threat from Yamaha at bay.