Cycle News

CN III ARCHIVES BY LARRY LAWRENCE I f you were a motorcycle road racing fan in 1982 you likely remember the first time you heard the low-baritone growl of Honda's FWS1000. One of the larger-than-life mo- torcycles that made the 1980s such a great era of racing, it was the sound of the FWS' engine that hit you like a ton of bricks. The reason was the FWS was the first V-four racing bike to hit U.S. shores. The ears of American rac- ing fans were tuned to the buzz of two-strokes, the higher-pitched whine of inline fours, or perhaps the thunder of V-twins, so the otherworldly sound emanating from the FWS instantly made you hone in on that bike. The other thing you noticed when listening to the FWS roar around a road course was the fact that the bike's riders seemed to shift about half as often as the two-stroke and inline four-stroke riders. The FWS obvious had a massively wide powerband and could just grunt out of corners like a tractor. Honda was always a company favoring four- stroke technology over the simpler and more pow- erful two-stroke motor designs. After the debacle of Honda's NR500 Grand Prix machine, the com- pany was eager to produce a winning four stroke and America's AMA Formula One National Road Race Championship was just the series ripe for the FWS. Yamaha had dominated the class for so long that its TZ had stagnated and most riders were by then riding old TZ750s, crude and brutal by comparison of the FWS, but incredibly potent nevertheless. In 1980 the AMA announced its AMA For- mula One class would allow restricted 750cc two-strokes like the Yamaha TZ750 as well as unrestricted 500cc two-strokes and 1025cc four- strokes. The new racing formula had the desired effect. At Daytona in 1980 Suzuki jumped into the new formula full on with its Moriwaki-framed, GS1000-based Formula One racer ridden by Wes Cooley, David Aldana and Graeme Crosby. Eddie Lawson rode a Kawasaki KZ1000-based Mori- waki-framed machine as well. Honda entered its RSC-designed RS1000 in the 1980 Daytona 200. While the big air-cooled inline fours made some inroads, the TZs still dominated. A more tech- nologically advanced machine was needed and HONDA'S FIRST V- FOUR P98 The Honda FWS1000 was easy to ride compared to the beastly two-stroke AMA F-1 of the early 1980s. In 1982 motocross racer Steve Wise (pictured here at Pocono in August of 1982) very nearly won the F-1 title in his first year of road racing. His Honda teammate Mike Baldwin won the championship, also on an FWS. PHOTOGRAPHY BY RICH CHENET

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