RC211V documentary

RC = Honda's traditional racing prefix for 4-stroke bikes

211 = first works bike of the 21st century

V = V engine

I always heard RC stands for Race Chassis



30-45-51 etc: were the actual number of the chassis made for racing

Very cool find! Will be watching that this weekend...

Honda are bored and they are always looking for new challenges. I make that statement b/c I inferred it from this documentary. NR500 is an interesting case study as well.



Thanks for posting, Austin. I should have done it a long time ago.

mylexicon said:

Honda are bored and they are always looking for new challenges.

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How does that make them any different from any other bunch of engineers? Having spent 10 years working among software engineers, I can tell you just how dangerous a species they are when they are bored, and just how quickly they get bored.

I've never met an engineer that could leave anything alone, lets make it smaller, less parts count, lets do this and that.

Thanks for posting the vids.

Kropotkin said:

How does that make them any different from any other bunch of engineers? Having spent 10 years working among software engineers, I can tell you just how dangerous a species they are when they are bored, and just how quickly they get bored.

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I know they are all extremely bored, but if you are trying to convince people that a bored group of engineers are running the GP ship aground to see what happens, it is best to pick one manufacturer instead of trying to convince people that the whole lot are in on it. Honda is the most powerful and they have been kind enough to provide us with documentaries.



Perhaps the idea that bored engineers are a dangerous breed is straight forward to people who've dealt with them, but the average fan is exposed to the marketing rhetoric which proclaims that MotoGP engineers are benevolent Einsteins who are hellbent on delivering the next great technological marvel to consumers in a cost-effective manner. In reality, the designers and technical directors are quite bored with the prospect of building the same thing over and over again. Swiss watch syndrome is quite unpleasant even for the mega-wealthy technical directors in F1 which is part of the reason they spend most of their time cheating even if it doesn't improve performance.



Bored engineers is the reason I'm also quite disgusted with the circular cylinder mandates. This is the 21st century and rapid prototyping technology has advanced leaps and bounds, as well as regulations enforcement technology. Prototypes should have non-circular pistons if the manufacturers are so inclined. In fact, it could be an interesting way to keep the horsepower war going. Stroke limit the bikes instead of bore limit. Chances are certain piston shapes will be more equal than others for friction and rev ceilings which will differentiate the factories from customer engines with circular pistons.

mylexicon said:

Bored engineers is the reason I'm also quite disgusted with the circular cylinder mandates. This is the 21st century and rapid prototyping technology has advanced leaps and bounds, as well as regulations enforcement technology. Prototypes should have non-circular pistons if the manufacturers are so inclined. In fact, it could be an interesting way to keep the horsepower war going. Stroke limit the bikes instead of bore limit. Chances are certain piston shapes will be more equal than others for friction and rev ceilings which will differentiate the factories from customer engines with circular pistons.

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I like your thinking. It's utterly perverse, but I like it nonetheless...

Honda RC211V = greatest motorcycle ever ever... 990 MotoGP racing= greatest racing ever ever... 800s suck taint.

Austin said:

According to Visordown, the RC stands for engines above 600cc but below 899cc. I don't know how that works with the RC211V, and apparently the RC51 is not that bike's true designation. Just throwing that out there.

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Wasnt the RC51 also called an SP2? Maybe that was a European designation.

Austin said:

According to Visordown, the RC stands for engines above 600cc but below 899cc. I don't know how that works with the RC211V, and apparently the RC51 is not that bike's true designation. Just throwing that out there.

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The RC thing is ........, the RC166 was 250cc, 6 cylinders and sounded ungodly. The Honda that you, our dear friends in the colonies, refer to as an RC51 was called an SP1 or SP2 in Europe, or rather, a VTR1000 SP1 or SP2.

Thanks for posting. Very interesting although you always have the feeling that Honda were going to turn out a race winner with the massive R&D budget they have not to mention the best rider in the world at that time.

Austin said:

According to Visordown, the RC stands for engines above 600cc but below 899cc. I don't know how that works with the RC211V, and apparently the RC51 is not that bike's true designation. Just throwing that out there.

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I don't buy it. Honda had RC's in the 60's in the smallest GP classes. I always thought RC was a factory designation, VFR750's have an associated RC number, just like BMW 3 series have E30, E36 etc or VW have Type 1 (original Beatle) and upward for every chassis they've made.

austin who give s a if its been posted before, nice find man!



im gonna watch this tonight



oh and i think you should send a copy of this to dornka so they can see why there late obscene restrictions will suck



cheers buddy

WIKI gives a listing of RC designated bikes going back to 1958 in every imaginable format. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_RC_series



I'd hazard it means Race Configuration - but wonder if Honda execs that far back would used such a sophisticated English word.

But it makes sense.

Keshav said:

WIKI gives a listing of RC designated bikes going back to 1958 in every imaginable format. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_RC_series



I'd hazard it means Race Configuration - but wonder if Honda execs that far back would used such a sophisticated English word.

But it makes sense.

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That wiki article says its a prefix used by HRC but it's been used since long before HRC existed

Tom said:

That wiki article says its a prefix used by HRC but it's been used since long before HRC existed

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Tru tru... however the salient point is that Honda race bikes have used that designation for bikes

utilizing a wide variety of displacements and chassis configurations so RC it would seem does

not specifically refer to either of those factors.