Quote:
Originally Posted by nomo
Sad , truly sad . You seem to think that Honda's retirement of the twin somehow mitigates or minimizes its stellar racing accomplishments , for a FRACTION of the '45's cost and in half the time . Indeed , the V4 is part of Honda's current racing plans ; so how is that working out for them ?!  |
I think the V2 is stellar only if you spot it some displacement... no
manufactures wanted to race a twin unless the rules don't allow some
size advantage and now even with the extra cubes most engineers
consider the V2 at the end of it's development stage thats why
Aprilia dropped the Big Bore and started racing a V4... Duacti is
going to do the same some day...
We now know Honda spent more on the V4 because they wanted to
develop it as an 4 stroke Gp racer... the RC51 only had to be as good
as WSBK and sell in the thousands at a cost that most street riders
could afford...
Quote Motorcycle International:
"Though I didn't know it at the time, a GP racer is exactly what the
RVF may yet become, following the decision to admit 750cc four-strokes
to the 500cc class for the 1991 GP season to bolster the two-thirds
empty grids. Wayne Gardner and Mick Doohan qualified the RVF four
stroke on pole on for last season's Suzuka endurance event in a time
of 2min 13.427sec, compared to Wayne Rainey's YZR500 pole for the
Japanese GP of 2min 09.589sec."
Quote MCI:
"Since Honda's approved achieving vital corporate goal has been
to import their works 500cc riders for a one-off four-stroke race,
it's not surprising that the RVF has been more and more modelled on
the NSR500 GP racer in chassis terms, while the V4 engine - based on
the RC30 for homologation purposes, but hyper-developed almost without
regard for cost - has come to resemble ever more closely a four-stroke
GP race motor."
Quote HRC boss Yoichi Oguma:
"Lately, Honda riders always complained about RVF feeling," said Osuma
san, ''but of course (they) only race a four-stroke just once a year,
in Suzuka Eight Hour. So, even though they began their careers racing
four-stroke bikes developed from street machines, now they are used to
500cc GP bikes. So, it's natural they ask us to make them an RVF racer
that feels like an NSR. For some years, we tried to produce a
compromise machine, but this year (1992) we gave into their wishes,
and made a 750cc four-stroke GP bike, just as they asked!" Or rather,
just as Mick Doohan asked. Beforehand Honda had consciously been
tailoring their RVF750 development to suit Wayne Gardner's
four-stroke-inherited tactics, but by last season he'd been supplanted
at the top of the Honda totem pole by Mick Doohan. That convinced HRC
to change the bike's design to Mick's quite different style. So in
1992, the year that Honda's Big-Bang NSR500 brought 170 bhp- plus
GP-winning performance within the mastery of the common man, thanks to
its user-friendly power delivery, the four-stroke RVF went clean in
the opposite direction. It's hard to convey in print just how
dramatically responsive the RVF is in every way to ride. It's a
nervous, taut, highly strung stallion of a motorcycle that at anything
above the fast 3,000 rpm idle is just raring to go, barely restrained
in its eagerness to be out there savouring the thrill of the chase.
Endurance racers - even factory bikes like the world title-winning
Kawasaki - have traditionally been long-legged mounts built to go the
distance; the Honda is a sprinter with the vital ingredient of
stamina. The ultra-trick, mega expensive, magnesium- body 40mm Keihin
flat-slide carbs are part of the equation, and are certainly largely
responsible for that arm-wrenching throttle response and the
light-switch power delivery which makes pulling wheelies in any of the
bottom three gears child's play. The RC30's big handicap, as I
discovered for myself when I raced a good kitted one in the Superbike
support race at the Dutch GP last season, is its lack of acceleration
out of turns compared to the Kawasakis and Ducatis. Yet Honda have
persuaded the same basic engine, in RVF form, to explode out of
corners with the venom of a 500cc GP bike."
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