1984 CHEVALLIER HONDA RS500
RACER TEST
P80
(Below) Chevallier
inspects his
creation in 1986.
Check out the
double caliper
front brake setup!
with his factory NS500 triple. While ex-
pressing satisfaction with the French
bike, he never raced it in the end,
though Oguma-san let teammate
Takazumi Katayama race a Bakker-
framed such bike—after which
Honda replicated the Dutch
chassis design for their 1985 Mark
2 version! It might have been a
Chevalier ripoff, instead.
BACK TO THE FUTURE
For 1986 the de Radiguès/Chevallier/
Honda RS500 lineup was re-formed
with Rollstar sponsorship, resulting in an
even more successful season with eight
top-10 finishes in the 12 races, en route to
seventh place in the World Championship
and top Honda triple, two spots ahead of
Ron Haslam on the Rosset-run ELF 3!
The highlight of the year was a magnificent
second place for Didier on the Chevallier
Honda triple in the pouring rain at Silver-
stone, just nine seconds behind winner
Wayne Gardner's NSR500 V4 Honda.
For 1987 de Radiguès was hired by
Cagiva with Chevallier as chassis con-
sultant, scoring the best finish yet for the
Italian factory with fourth place in Brazil.
But tensions within the team saw Alain
stop GP racing altogether, despite the
offer of Honda NSR500 engines from
Oguma-san, which he had to decline,
with no team to run the consequent V4
Chevallier Honda.
INTO THE BIG LEAGUES IN '85
The tube-frame Chevallier Honda
RS500 was tested at a wintry Paul
Ricard by Didier, who declared it to
be "right first time!" He then proved that
by leading the first four laps of the bike's
very first race a month later in the
opening South African GP, before
finishing fourth with teammate Le
Liard eighth. With three other
top-10 finishes, the Belgian
finished ninth in the World
Championship, a satisfying
result for him and Chevallier. But
strangely, though, not for ELF, as
they supported Serge Rosset's team
in 1985 instead. Politics!
THE BAKKER REMIX
Redesigning Pernod's own 250GP
bike gave the four full-time Chevallier
employees something to do in 1985,
while the de Radiguès 500 was lent
to French privateer Thierry Espié, who
scored points on it twice before return-
ing it to Alain. Meantime, the other
ex-Le Liard bike was twice tested by
Randy Mamola, anxious to redress the
handling issues he was experiencing
The three-cylinder
Honda RS500 is one of
the most exquisite racing
engines ever created.
