Polished Privateer!
If you wanted a chance to win on the roads in the early 1990s, there really was only one choice: Honda’s RC30…
We celebrate both the beauty and power of Honda’s VFR750R RC30 and the genius of the underrated Steve Ward – a truly talented road-race privateer. This bike has been restored as an homage to Steve himself.
It’s a thoroughly modern classic – Honda’s VFR750R RC30. Built to win the nascent World Superbike championship in the late 1980s, it did indeed achieve that for Honda – American ‘Flyin’ Fred Merkel took his Rumi Honda RC30 to the title in the debut year of the series in 1988 and backed this up with the bike’s last title in 1989. That’s not all… a certain Carl Fogarty used his own Appleby Glade-backed V4 to win the TT F1 World Championship in 1988 and 1989 and then took the FIM Cup F1 series in 1990.
The RC30’S many wins on the roads proved the bike’s adaptability from short circuits to the more demanding roads. Basically, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, if you wanted a chance to win, you needed a Honda RC30.
The single-sided swingarm and quickrelease front forks helped during frenetic pit stops at the TT, but was also a nod to endurance racing and the need for fast tyre and wheel changes. But it was what nestled between the frame rails that made the bike truly special. The liquid-cooled 90-degree V4 four-stroke displaced 748cc and had gear-driven double overhead camshafts and a 360-degree crank/firing order.
On the road machine, the Japanese domestic model (recognisable by smaller twin headlights) pumped out around 76bhp at 9500rpm while the full-power model for the rest of the world saw a claimed 115-118bhp at 11,000rpm. All this power was transferred via a close-ratio six-speed gearbox, meanwhile a good race bike would see anything up to 130bhp at 12,000rpm+…
The real genius of the RC30 was that it gave privateers a chance of beating the works teams and this very machine is proof of that. The current owner is Clive White, who runs Rapier Paintwork in Hull (www. rapierpaintwork.co.uk.) He says: “I’ve always loved the Honda RC30 and to be honest I’ve always wanted one and wanted one that was special. This machine fits the bill. The bike is
an ex-steve Ward machine raced at the Isle of Man TT in the 1990s before Steve moved on to the later RC45 with Honda.”
Steve Ward was one Britain’s foremost road-circuit specialists and was one of those unassuming racers that you always felt could have been a bigger star if he had pushed himself a bit more. But then that wasn’t his way – but he was fast…
This very machine was supplied for Steve by Honda in 1989 and he was the only one to race it, and race it he did – all across the globe. Apart from the bike racing at every TT from 1989 until 1994 where he was a consistent top six finisher, his highlights on this bike included 1992, when Steve rode this RC30 to 2nd place in the Ulster Grand Prix, then in 1993 he claimed two 3rd place finishes in both the Senior and Formula 1 TT races. No mean feat, as he was beating the likes of Joey Dunlop, Jason Griffiths and Jim Moodie.
His giant-killing performances got him firmly in the sights of Honda who didn’t want their factory stars being shown up by a privateer machine – even if it was a Honda and a very well prepared one. This very machine has a number of the HRC ‘kit’ parts, including forks, wheels, yokes, wiring harness, ignition, radiator, 25-litre endurance fuel tank, rev counter, temperature gauge, endurance racing ignition coils, Formula 1 carburettors and front brake discs.
The exhaust of choice back in the early 1990s was a hand-made Micron full system. Suspension that Steve used included an Ohlins rear shock absorber, Ohlins steering damper, and uprated Ohlins fork internals. Included in the paperwork for ‘F374 UHD’ when Clive bought the bike was a dyno chart from F W Developments showing a maximum power output of 126.7bhp at 12,300rpm. That’s impressive…
And with those impressive results, came recognition. Worried that Ward’s performances could eclipse their own, Honda
Britain awarded Steve a well-deserved factory bike – the new RC45 – for 1995. After all, better to have Steve on their new bike than have him potentially beat them on the old one… Steve repaid the faith by taking 3rd on the RC45 in 1995’s Senior TT with a 118.25mph lap average.
Clive says: “When you think that this bike got on the podium in both the F1 and Senior TT races in 1993 – that’s not a bad achievement at all. So it’s smothered in history. After that it dropped off the radar for a while.”
Sadly, Steve was killed at a race in Anderstorp, Sweden in 1996. As a race reporter for the weekly motorcycling newspaper I was so very surprised to see – just three weeks after Steve’s death – his wife Yvonne lugging a rear wheel, tyre warmers and a pit-board up the pit-lane at the Isle of Man TT races… I had to ask: “Why are you here?” She replied: “Steve would have wanted me to be here and I love road racing.” Yvonne was – at the time – helping out Ian Lougher. Yvonne and Steve were together for 20 years before his untimely death, but in the years after she’s helped out a number of road-racers and raised a considerable amount of money for road-racing’s various charities. Steve would be so very proud.
After Steve’s passing the bike was sold by Yvonne to a friend and road-racing enthusiast and then restored. It was sold at Bonhams in 2005 and then it was made into a Dunlop doppelganger. Clive explains: “I bought it from the Joey Dunlop Foundation. They had it in Joey’s colours, so I restored it back to the original bodywork. Steve’s widow Yvonne confirmed it was his and ever since then I’ve owned it.”
What do you do with a machine with such rich history? Clive says: “It’s been out and about quite a bit and has even done parade laps with Ian Simpson at the controls and I’ve track-dayed it. It’s an absolute dream to ride – I mean, it’s got to be one of the best bikes if not THE best bike Honda ever built – especially when you think how many championships, races and road-races it won.”
For Clive as the current custodian of this beautiful machine which is a lasting legacy of Steve Ward’s success, it’s the attention to detail on the RC30 which still impresses him. “I really love the little intricacies with these older bikes,” he says. “Like how good the quality of the welds are on the frame and throughout the bike as a whole. For me though, the jewel in the crown of this machine is that V4 motor.”
As mentioned, the motor pumps out around 127bhp… still impressive today. The motor is a full Tony Scott prepared one. Tony would actually be visited by Honda’s top Japanese engineers as they wanted to see how someone like him could make their bikes so fast. Clive adds: “Everything from the machined pistons to the F1 cams make this one rapid machine. Back in the day this bike put out a lot of horsepower for a 750. It’s a piece of history and I love it.”
“STEVE WARD IMPRESSED ON HIS RC30, TAKING A NUMBER OF TT PODIUMS. SO MUCH SO THAT HONDA OFFERED HIM A WORKS RC45 FOR THE 1995 SEASON. THE TONY SCOTT-TUNED V4 PUMPS OUT AROUND 127BHP. STILL IMPRESSIVE TODAY!”