VOL. 52 ISSUE 24 JUNE 16, 2015 P53
by HRC race boss Shuhei Naka-
moto and Repsol Honda riders—
Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa.
Available in either bare un-
painted carbon-fiber or Honda's
historic Freddie Spencer-era
red, white and blue tricolor livery
(dating from HRC's 1982 founda-
tion), the bike will enter produc-
tion in late September this year,
with first deliveries in October. It
will be sold—and will meet cur-
rent homologation requirements
for street use—only in Japan,
Australia, Europe and here in the
U.S. for $184,000. Honda will
start accepting orders at mid-
night on July 13 this year, via a
dedicated website www.rc213v-
s.com. There's an optional 'track
use only' Sport Kit, but this is not
available in the U.S. where the
performance of the bike will be
steeply restricted.
So compared to the 'over 235
bhp' that Honda reveals Mar-
quez' prototype produces, the
standard RC213V-S 16-valve V4
motor—with gear-driven DOHC
and running 13:1 compression—
is claimed to produce 157 bhp at
11,000 rpm in street-legal form.
It's fitted with a Euro 3-compliant
catalyst exhaust with full silenc-
ing, and a rev ceiling of 12,000
rpm.
But with the Sport Kit fitted—a
lighter titanium race pipe devoid
of catalyst, a new front fairing
with ram air ducting replacing
the LED headlights, and a race
electronic package including a
higher 14,000 rpm limiter—this
increases by a massive 35 per-
cent to 212 bhp at 13,000 rpm
on a bike weighing 44 pounds
less than its street-legal counter-
part at 353-pounds dry.
Torque goes up too, rising
from 74.23ft-lb at 10,500 rpm in
street guise to 87.03ft-lb at the
same revs. But U.S.-delivered
bikes will only be available in se-
verely strangulated form, with an
9,400 rpm limiter imposed, re-
stricting horsepower to 101 bhp,
and torque to just 66.38lb-ft—
both at 8,000 revs. The reason
for this is the lack of space on
such a densely packaged racer-
with-lights to make room for the
bulky exhaust silencing needed
to meet U.S. noise regulations,
so the only solution was to back
HONDA RC213V-S
