Carrozzeria Watanabe Griffon

After the first series of Japanese Grand Prix events held through the mid to late 1960s, the racing scene absolutely exploded in Japan, with amateurs and professionals alike hurriedly taking to local tracks in order to experience the joys of driving quickly.

Driving quickly leads to breaking things, a small problem for many Japanese families still finding their feet (and discretionary income) well into the 1960s and 1970s.

This isolation and relative scarcity meant enthusiasts were forced to improvise, especially when it came to sourcing or straight-up inventing spare parts. Hell, it's a pain now to ship parts into Canada from the U.S. — I can't imagine being an enthusiast in Japan and trying to buy, say, a racing seat or harnesses from Europe before the internet came along!

For sports car and formula racing, this problem was worse — especially sourcing replacement body parts. To fill cracks in the market, a number of small constructors took to their own sketch pads and created everything from wings to entire cars from fiberglass. 

One such person was Masao Watanabe, an engineer by trade who was swept up in the racing craze and was found to be very skilled at creating and setting up Formula 3 cars.

In 1970, at the 3rd annual Tokyo Racing Car Show, Watanabe had a big surprise for attendees: a Honda S600-based sports car called the Flying Pegasus. According to sources, it was the first road legal Japanese car with a fiberglass body. The cars came out of the Carrozzeria Watanabe garage in Hachioji, Tokyo.