HONDA RC45 RACER TEST
Honda’s V4-engined RC45 had a difficult birth, at a time when Superbikes were challenging 500GP lap records.
Born in 1993, it took It took four years for the successor to the legendary RC30 to win the World Superbike championship, but on the eve of Honda’s 50th birthday, American John Kocinski delivered the prize the company’s founder Soichiro Honda coveted above all others on two wheels: the top honor in 4-stroke racing for a company whose corporate and sporting success over the previous half-century had until recently been based on ever more sophisticated 4-strokes. To do this in 1997, the company’s engineers produced a virtual 4-stroke GP bike that revved to nearly 15,000rpm.
It was a sweet triumph for Honda, whose previous World Superbike titles had been won a decade earlier in 1988 and 1989, courtesy of Fred Merkel and the Team Rumi RC30. Honda then sat out the Superbike class at world level
