For sale: a Honda V10 engine last used by Ayrton Senna, completely disassembled

This isn’t the world’s most advanced and most expensive Lego Technic set, it is in fact a complete Honda V10 engine designed and built for use in Formula One, and now heading to auction.

And used specifically by one Ayrton Senna during the 1990 season when this finely tuned set of components were bolted into the back of his McLaren-Honda MP4/5B.

Senna deployed the catchily titled ‘RA100E-V805’ V10 across the 1990 Japanese and Australian GPs, but alas, it was not to taste victory, despite being a bit of rocket.

At Suzuka, Senna and Prost (in the Ferrari) crashed at the first corner. In Aus, Senna qualified on pole and led for 61 of 80 laps before his gearbox let him down. That was V805’s farewell.

Now normally, in Ye Good Olde Days of F1, these engines were sent back to Honda Japan, disassembled, inspected (to see if they could tweak anything for the next race), and then… binned. Horrifying, we know.

But in 1990 Australia was the last race of the season, and in 1991 the grid would move to V12s, and the V10 couldn’t teach the V12 any new tricks. So V805 was merrily shipped off to Honda’s warehouse – like that bit at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark – where it was promptly forgotten about and only discovered last year. Horrifying, we know.

Now, direct from that Honda warehouse in Japan, it’s been disassembled and offered up for auction at Bonhams’ Quail sale, set for 15 August. And get this – there’s no reserve, either. It arrives with its own bespoke cabinet too, and carries that all-important certificate of authenticity from Honda itself.

Bonhams describes it as “absolutely the rarest of the rare”, and it’s a two-fold gem: the last V10 used by an absolute master, and Honda’s last V10. V10s, as we all know, are just special.

Photography: Honda Racing Corporation/Bonhams