Honda's secret V-twin superbike test
Road Race
Photos by Paul Barshon
PHILLIP ISLAND, AUSTRALIA, FEB. 23-24
Wo things are clear: We know
Honda has a V-twin superbike,
and we know tltey took the time
and expense to take their two best
superbike riders - Colin Edwards II and
Aaron Slight - to Phillip Island for two
days of Intensive secret testing. Whether
or not Honda's own factory team will
use the V-twin as tlte basis of its effort to
win the World Superbike Championship is open to speculation.
Reliable sources, however, insist that
the RC45 replacement will be a V-four,
T
and the third coming in at high revs.
The ram-air-equipped twin is said to
make about 165 hp at the rear wheel compared to the RC45's 185 hp - and
have a top speed some 3-4 mph slower
than the RC45 at Phillip Island.
Times from the test were said to be
promising, with both Edwards and
Slight circulating in the low 1:35 range
on the V-twin, not far off times set at the
recent World Superbike winter test at
which Ducati's Troy Corser. set a new
unofficial track record of 1:33.415. At
that same official winter test, Slight, riding the RC45, turned in a 1:33.666, with
teammate Edwards just behind at
1:33.841. The Aprilia RSVI000, ridden
by Peter Goddard, achieved a time of
1:35.536, and in a separate, earlier test in
January, Noriyuki Haga lapped Phillip
Island in 1:35.6.
.
CII
which would leave the bike you see in
these photos a customer machine geared
toward private teams, similar to the situation in Grand Prix racing with
Honda's NSR500V V-twin and NSRSOO
V-four.
In any case; with the RC45's five-year
FIM homologation period expiring at
the end of the 1999 season, you can
count on the factory World Superbike
team to be campaigning a new motorcycle the following year. According to
the AMA rule book, the RC45 will
remain legal in the AMA Superbike
series in 2000.
The 996cc Honda V-twin, called the
NTRI000 by one source, is said to have
a three-point fuel-injection system similar to those used on the RC45 and
Ducati, with two injectors for lower revs
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