“SHOICHIRO IRIMAJIRI WAS TASKED WITH DESIGNING A ‘NEW ENGINE’, WHICH BASICALLY MEANT NOT A TWO-STROKE”
A LITTLE over 30 years ago, Honda released Japan’s most exotic and expensive production motorcycle yet, the NR750, also known as the RC40. The big news was the eight-valves-per-cylinder, oval-piston V4 engine, derived from the exotic NR500 GP racer. Costing around $150,000 in today’s money, the NR750 was also the first Japanese sports bike to feature fully-mapped multi-point fuel injection, upside-down forks, carbon-fibre bodywork, titanium anything, side-mounted radiators and under-seat exhausts. It was beautifully styled by Mitsuyoshi Kohama (who also penned the Fireblade), inspiring the likes of Ducati’s Massimo Tamburini, but takers were few at the stiff price. Just 322 (of a planned limited run of 1000) were built at the rate of one a week.
The seeds of
