Honda’s MotoGP Greats
Honda’s three MotoGP machines – the RC211V, RC212V and RC213V – have won more races and titles than any other manufacturer. It’s all about combining Honda engineering with the best rider talent During the 18 seasons since MotoGP went four-stroke in 2002, Honda has won 22 riders and constructors world championships and achieved 153 Grand Prix victories. This dominance is the result of combining the talents of genius engineers and legendary riders. Racing has always been hugely important to Honda, and the work that Honda has done at the racetrack has had a huge effect on motorcycling. Many of the technologies that motorcyclists enjoy every day originated in the minds of Honda engineers, who always work to not only win races but also to learn from winning races. The RC211V, RC212V and RC213V continue the naming system Honda used with its first GP bikes that took the World Championships by storm in the 1960s. These fabulous machines included the six-cylinder RC166 250, the five-cylinder RC149 125 and the four-cylinder RC181 500. RC stands for Racing Cycle, the 211 indicates that the RC211V was Honda’s first GP bike of the 21st century and the V refers to the vee configuration of the five-cylinder engine. The 212 was Honda’s second GP bike of the 21st century and the 213 the third. RC211V (2002-2006) When MotoGP went four-stroke in 2002 Honda took the opportunity to build a remarkable motorcycle that is still revered throughout the MotoGP paddock and beyond. The RC211V was an inspired design. The five-cylinder vee engine delivered superb rider-friendly performance, while its compact design allowed the construction of a chassis that gave riders real confidence when they attacked corners. This allowed numerous riders to get the maximum out of the RC211V. Ten RC211V riders – Alex Barros, Max Biaggi, Toni Elias, Sete Gibernau, Nicky Hayden, Marco Melandri, Dani Pedrosa, Valentino Rossi, Makoto Tamada and Tohru Ukawa – won a total of 48 MotoGP races during MotoGP’s five-year 990cc era from 2002 to 2006. The bike also won three riders titles and four constructors titles during that period. The RC211V used a 75.5-degree vee engine with three cylinders in the front bank and two in the rear. Some of its concepts came from previous Honda GP bikes and some from Honda street machines – proving that technology flows both ways at Honda. The big-bang firing configuration – which delivers torque to the rear tyre in a more useable way – came from Honda’s NSR500, which utterly dominated the final years of the 500cc world championship following Honda’s introduction of the big-bang concept in 1992. The RC211V’s cylinder design borrowed heavily from lessons Honda had learned from its V4 RC45 street bike, winner of the 1997 World Superbike championship. The two engines shared very similar combustion chamber design, as well as bore and stroke measurements. At first the RC211V was in a relatively low state of tune, making around 220 horsepower. The fastest bike of the inaugural MotoGP season was Ukawa’s RC211V, which reached 324.5kmh/201.6mph at Mugello in June 2002. Power had increased significantly by the final 990cc season of 2006, when the fastest bike was Casey Stoner’s RC211V, reaching 334kph/207.5mph at Mugello. Honda’s first MotoGP chassis was certainly the equal of its first MotoGP engine. The crucial idea behind the chassis design was mass centralisation. This entailed concentrating maximum mass around the centre of the motorcycle to improve handling, steering and overall manageability. An important aspect of this concept was relocating the fuel tank. The RC211V’s unorthodox design carried a third of its fuel beneath the rider, to bring the fuel load closer to the centre of the bike. Riders found this a particular advantage in the early stages of races, when previously they had struggled with so much fuel carried so high in the bike. HRC estimated that whereas the NSR500 was at 70 percent of its performance potential in the early laps the RC211V was at 80 to 90 percent. Apart from the easy-going chassis, what made the RC211V so good at going fast over full race distance – with new tyres, then with used tyres – was its flat, friendly torque curve. This allowed riders to spin the rear tyre and maintain control, because when rpm increased torque didn’t, so the tyre regained grip without any drama. After Rossi won the RC211V’s first riders titles in 2002 and 2003 Honda’s strongest rider was young American Nicky Hayden, who joined the Repsol Honda squad in 2003, after winning the 2002 US Superbike title aboard a Honda VTR1000. Hayden’s riding technique – learned on American dirt tracks – was to ride the bike loose, using wheelspin to help him steer the motorcycle. No wonder he adored the RC211V. Hayden won the 2006 MotoGP title at the final round, in one of the most dramatic days in grand prix history. Memories of Hayden, the RC211V and that day at Valencia will live forever. RC212V (2007-2011) MotoGP’s technical regulations were rewritten for the 2007 season, reducing engine capacity from 990cc to 800cc. Thus HRC went back to work, creating a new machine for the second MotoGP era. The RC212V employed many of the lessons learned from the RC211V, but was an all-new motorcycle, powered by a V4 engine. Once the 2007 season was underway it quickly became obvious that the 800s were very different machines from the 990s. The smaller engines produced less power and torque, so the bikes demanded a different riding style, prioritising high corner speed over sideways corner exits. The narrow-angle V4 revved past 18,000rpm, 2000rpm more than its larger-capacity predecessor, using pneumatic-valve springs for better valve control at high rpm. The steeper power curve of the 800s also demanded better electronic rider controls, including anti-wheelie, traction control and launch control. Evolution of electronics was the most significant development during the 800cc era. Remarkably, the 800s immediately recorded faster lap times than the 990s at most tracks, their greater speed through the corners more than compensating for a …