Shinichi Myakoshi, lead designer of the iconic Honda Six power unit, will surely go down as one of the most talented motorcycle engineers of all time.

Although Japanese culture, with its traits of modesty and shyness, would rarely attribute success to individual engineers, painstaking research carried out by original RC174 (297 Six) owner Terry Murayama, confirms that Miykoshi played a leading role in designing the company’s greatest racing engine and subsequent world championship disruptors.

Very much a backroom team member in the company’s centralised R and D department, created in July 1960, Miyakoshi’s engineering vision became a game-changer for Honda.

Not only did his genius propel Honda out of their modest debut in international racing in 1959, but on at least two other occasions the record books will document his impact on track successes.

Murayama, having acquired the ex-Mike Hailwood 297 Six, in the mid-80s, in more recent times gained access to the sheafs of component design sheets, created by the RC164 design collective, with Miyakoshi’s flair at its forefront.

In 1979 his single-cylinder 500cc motocross engine gave the factory its first blue riband success and then in 1983 he restored the company’s respect with his 500cc three-cylinder grand prix racer in the hands of Freddie Spencer.