The Inside Line to Classic Japanese Iron
The world of amateur circuit racing has always been the kinder garden of the GPs; the vast majority of people who race are unlikely to graduate much beyond domestic series and those that do find the financial costs punitive. Many who made the jump to compete outside the UK from the 1950s on did so as privateers – racing for start money with just minimal sponsorship. When the Japanese came to the GPs initially it was almost exclusively as factory teams, but gradually the main protagonists realised that they could generate huge PR for minimal outlay by offering less sophisticated versions of their competition machinery or marketing tuning kits for their road bike. These so-called ‘clubman racers’ promoted the various brands around the world and even into the late 1970s and early 1980s riders competing on ‘over the counter’ race bikes occasionally shone and/or embarrassed the true contracted factory riders.
By the mid 1980s the 500 GP class was beginning to get a little stale and predictable with Honda, Suzuki and Yamaha slogging it out with ever more sophisticated machinery that was both exclusive and jealously guarded. If you were sufficiently well heeled with enough sponsorship it was just possible to lease a factory race bike that ran the previous year’s technology, but it was a hellishly expensive hobby!
The Italian Cagiva firm grabbed a toehold on the grid from late 80s and was actively welcomed by the Japanese factories for adding some much needed variety to the mix.
It’s said at least one of the oriental firms aided the Cagiva simply to add increased interest from the public. However, it was still almost impossible for a talented, non-contracted racer to compete at GP level.
Thinking laterally, the mighty Honda organisation came up with a plan that was aimed at bringing more variety to the race tracks and, hopefully, encouraging new talent and smaller race teams to compete at the highest level. From 1996 to 2001 it was possible to buy, not lease, a NSR500V2, which was a V twin two stroke rather than the all-prevalent V4s. These machines were still built by HRC (Honda’s racing arm) so were unquestionably well engineered; they allowed several, less affluent, teams to compete at the highest level. The V twins also got more exposure/ PR/advertising for Honda out in the public domain at zero cost to the firm!
On paper the V twins should, theoretically, have been significantly handicapped as they were at least 40-50bhp or more down on power compared to the V4s. However, the twins were also down on weight, undercutting the more technically sophisticated fours by some 30kg. On the straights the full factory bikes unquestionably had the legs over these ‘high-end clubman machines’, but when it came to bends the tables were turned. The V twins were able to hold greater corner speed, exit the apex without potentially high-siding and then get back to speed quicker due to their power characteristics. In essence, these elite twins were inherently easier to ride for everyone other than the supremely talented or the downright mad. Many initially questioned the logic and viability of the concept, yet when the privateer V twins began lapping many of the more technically demanding circuits at the same speed as the factory V4s, those preconceived inadequacies weren’t quite so obvious.
Tadayuki Okada achieved pole position in the V2’s maiden race in Malaysia 1996, which rather neatly proved the concept. Development of the design over the winter of 96-97 facilitated top five placings for the next season and Alex Barros getting a podium at Donington, with more to come in the following seasons. It was only the introduction of four stroke Moto GP machines that ended the most unlikely successes of a rather unusual two stroke.
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