Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

·IN ID O Honda.Racing Corporation S E.LO K. Where It all beg ins: Hon da Racing Corporation headquarters In Saltama. Japan. CiW/ By Tracy Hagen ..... ... --0 0.. < 32 ould you like to see the NSRSOOV?" asked Suguru Kana zawa, the recently promoted vice president of Honda Racing Corporation. The question came during the middle of a two- hour exclusive interview with Kanazawa-san at HRC headquarters in Saitama, Japan. About one hour northwest of central Tokyo, th e three-story, 80,000-squarefoo t building th at is home to HRC is rather pl ain and undistinguished from the rest of the industrial buildings in the area (which includes Honda Research and Development for cars at Wako). I was thankful that the taxi driver knew where to go , because one could ea sil y drive past the HRC head office and never realize that the engineers and technicians at this modest facility are the ones responsible for defining the state of the art in motorcycle racin g technology. I h ad ex pected someth in g enti rely d iffer ent. As a regular visitor to Suzuka Circuit - a w holly owne d "associate d co m p a ny" of H ond a - I a m u sed to Honda's way of doing everything on a very gr and scale, second to non e. And I kno w th at H ond a tak es security very seriously; the 10-m inute walk from the Suzuka Circu it bu s sto p to the press room can require one to present his creden tial up to seve n tim es. Amo ng the rac e teams, HRC is th e best at giv ing one th e " Kee p o u t - th is m ean s yo u" kind of feelin g. N ot so at HRC headquarter s. Aft er picking up a visitor's badge at the small gu ardh ouse, it is only a sho rt w a lk to th e HRC front lobby. N othing fancy here; not eve n a receptionist .- only a few lounge chairs, some coffee tables with the prerequisite-in-Japan ash trays, and a few HRC promotion al p osters on th e wa ll. While w aiting for Mr. Kanazawa, I wandered over to a sm all table nea r the front door to look over the vari ou s trophies on display. Here, within a foot or two of the front door, are some of Mick Doohan's 1995 Grand Prix trophies, tha t n anyone can pick up and look at. Onl y in Japan... . HISTORY Honda Racing Corporat ion is a dependent co mpany within H onda Motor Company Limited, an d is separate from Honda R&D (internall y referred to as HGA - H ond a Gik en Asaka, Honda Giken being th e co rp o- ' rate name of Honda in Jap an, and Asaka being the town in which Honda R&D is located ) and Suzuka Circuit Land. But this hasn't always been the case. "In 1977, Honda established NR - NR means New Racer - in Honda R&D: : explains Kanazawa-san. "Th is g ro u p has the main job of developing a 500cc Gr and Prix rac er. At th is time H onda also has RSC - RSC means Racing Servi ce Center -.in H ond a R &D. This gro up has some work for endurance racing, for exam ple, Le Mans 24 Hou rs and Bol d'Or. In 1982 we combined NR and RSC to form HRC." Du rin g th e N R/ RSC period o f 1977 through 1982, Sho ichiro Irimajiri guided the opera tions . One o f H ond a ' s best engi nee rs ever, Irim ajiri' s involvement wi th Honda's Grand Pri x racer s o f the 1960s led to the first modern supe rbike, the CB750, lat er th e six-cylinder CBX, and ultimately took him to the conception of the oblong-piston NRSOO. While the RSC organization had been ar ound since 1973, it wasn't until Hond a founded HRC that racing became a serious endeavor w ithin H onda . With 80 million yen in capital, HRC cap tured the Tri a ls World Champion sh ip with the fo u r-s troke RTL360 p ilo ted by Eddy Leje une . On th e pavement, fe arless Freddie Spencer aboard the three-cylin d e r NS500 brou ght Hon d a their firs t 500cc Grand Pri x win in fifteen yea rs wi th a vi ctory at the Belgian Grand Prix. In 1983, HRC added the ATAC exhaust control system to Spencer's NS500 and narrowl y won the 500cc W orld Championship over Kenny Roberts. World championships were also won with HRC-built bikes in the IT-Fl road racing class, and again in trials with Lejeune. By now HRC was also working in motocross, where they won championshi ps in th e AMA National and Supercross series, and in the domestic All Japan series. The following year Honda b rought out the ir first production road racer in the modern era , the RS250. In the Grand Prix wars, Honda in troduced the firs t NSR500. A V-four, 90-degree, s in glecrank engine with the fuel tank mou nted u ndernea th the powerplant and expansion chambers above, it was an exercise with training value only, as Honda immediately went about a complete red esign. By 198 5 H onda h ad incre as ed th e capital of HRC to 320 mill ion yen, and the m o n ey brou ght w orld cha m pi onshi ps in 250 and 500cc G rand Pr ix (and lifelong fame for Freddie Spencer), IT-Fl , endu rance, and 500cc mot ocross. On the technical side, Honda introdu ced the four-stroke RTL250 tria ls bike wi th an ultralight aluminum frame, as well as the cont ro llable exhaus t-po rt valve for the RC250 motocross mot orcycle. Pr in ce Ch arles an d Prin cess Diana pai d a visit to HRC in 1986 to look over manufacturing of the new NSR500 and other models. Altho ug h Honda lost the Gr and Prix Ch ampion ships th at year, they retained the champion ships in ITFl , En d urance, an d 500cc Mot ocro ss. De velopment ac tivit ies co m p le te d in 1986 in clud ed th e si ng le -si ded sw inga rm fo r th e RVF750 en d u ra nce racer , U-sha ped radiators, inve rted forks for motocross an d the all-new (and successfu l) NX R7 50 Pa ri s -D a k ar Rall y mo torcycle. H onda regained the 250 and 500cc road racing world cham pions hi ps in 1987 with Tony Mang and Wayne Gardner, respectively, and won world champions hips in 250 and 500cc motocross. From the engineering side, Honda made news by participating in the Le Mans 24 hour with the NR750 obl ong-piston Vfour . The following year was lackluster in com parison, and m anagement of HRC was give n to Takeo Fuk ui. A contemporary of Irimajiri, Fukui was the enginee r who finally solved the piston-ring pr ob- . lems of the NR engi nes . The 1989 season was a return to the forefront at HRC, with Eddie Lawson capturing the 500cc road racing world championship, and Sito Pons the 250cc championship. Success was also had in the TT-Fl and endurance cha mpionships, the 250 and 500cc motocross world championships as well as a fourth consecutive victory in the Paris-Dakar rally. On the research and development front, HRC began w ork on electronically controlled fuel injectio n for Grand Pri x motor cycles. What HRC ha s d on e in th e 1990s la rgely under the g ui da nce of Yoich i Oguma - sho u ld be well kn own alrea dy . CURRENT STATUS Un favo rab le excha nge rates coupled with a stagnant Japan ese eco nomy has taken its toll on Honda, and on HRC. The number of HR C proj ect s has been cut back, to wher e tod ay HRC' s activities are limited to Grand Prix mot orcycles (NSR and RS series), RC45 race kits, and parts for existing RS750 d irt track machines for the AMA Grand National Champion ship series. "We ha ve n o m on ey, no budget," s ta te d Kana zaw a. " Ma xim u m h ead count w a s 270 in 1987. Tod a y , 190. Shrinking.:" At HRC, the ann ua l budget is sp lit roughly SO/ 50 betw een operations on s ite at HRC, a n d race- tea m s u p po rt . operations. "H RC is co m p le te ly d ependent on

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