Whats up with Hondas invented oval pistons?

 

Honda originally designed em in the early 80's in order to make a competetive 4 stroke GP bike by producing what was essentially a V-8 in V4 cases via oval pistons with dual rods in order to meet rules regarding 4 stroke cylinder configuration/number/displacement . It pretty much failed miserably - it was overly complex , too costly and couldn't compete with the 2 stroke 500's - although much of that was due to flaws in its chassis . Honda built the NR 750 in the early 90's with its dual Ti rods , PGM FI , carbon bodywork etc as a technology showpiece and decided to build a limited number of them for street use - pretty much just because they could . There are 2 definately in the US , a film director owns one and another belongs to a large dealership , but though Honda claims to have built 200 it seems ~180 of them are missing ! They're still beautiful bikes ,but wildly expensive = if I recall correctly , the body panels alone are over $10,000 to replace ! The design has its merits - a specially tuned NR broke several speed records ! - but the cost and complexity aren't worth the minor performance gains possible over more conventional designs , especially when the new GP 1 bikes are making 220 hp/liter .
IMO , its biggest contribution was that it donated its styling to the Ducati 916 - which appeared some 4 years later







[Modified by Hawkrider, 5:16 AM 1/5/2002]

 

Most excellently written Enjoyed.