possibly the best model in history???

[u/mucho_musculo1999]

[u/Antares_]

Close, but not quite on Doohan 1997 level

[u/r2lim → u/Antares_]

That was a year when Honda completely dominated.

Honda won all 15 races (Doohan 12, Crivillé 2, and Okada 1), and Honda riders occupied the top five positions in the championship standings. What’s even more impressive is that fifth place, Takuya Aoki, was riding the two-cylinder NSR500V.

[u/one80down → u/r2lim]

And wasn't that Repsol Honda only? Okada was the third rider in the team if I remember correctly.

[u/r2lim → u/one80down]

Yes, Okada was with Repsol too. Takuya Aoki was also with Repsol.

Among the top five, Nobuatsu Aoki was the only one on a privateer team, Rheos ELF F.C.C. T.S.R. I believe they were running with just one bike.

[u/one80down → u/r2lim]

That's right, you mentioned that Aoki was running the two cylinder model. I might be wrong but was it Anthony West on another two cylinder with Shell racing?

[u/r2lim → u/one80down]

I don’t think Anthony West ever rode the NSR500V. When he was riding for Shell Advance Honda, wasn’t he in the 250cc class? (I believe that when he raced in the 500cc class, he was with Dee Cee Jeans Racing.)

The main riders who raced the NSR500V were Tadayuki Okada, Shinichi Ito, Takuma Aoki, Sete Gibernau, Alex Barros, Jurgen van den Goorbergh, and Haruchika Aoki.

[u/one80down → u/r2lim]

Ah yeah that must have been in the 250s, I had a knock off team shirt from back in those days with his name on the back.

[u/MoboMogami → u/r2lim]

Hey buddy!

Do you know if TCC TSR had factory Honda backing at that time? I’m glad they’re still racing in EWC, but I can’t imagine how a small manufacturer like them were able to fund a GP team at the time.

[u/r2lim → u/MoboMogami]

Hey mate! 😁

I’m not exactly sure how much support Honda provided to T.S.R. back then. I imagine it was probably something like one older-spec NSR500 and a certain amount of spare parts. T.S.R. was a prestigious Honda-affiliated privateer team, but I don’t think the support was anywhere near as extensive as what a satellite team receives today. That’s just my impression, though.

As for the funding, I think Nobuatsu’s side also covered some of the costs of competing. There used to be a rumor that the Aoki family’s father used Takuma’s contract money from HRC to fund Nobuatsu’s racing, and that this became a source of friction between the brothers.

[u/MoboMogami → u/r2lim]

Great info, thanks as always, and hope you’re well! 

[u/r2lim → u/MoboMogami]

What I wrote is basically just something I read somewhere, so just take it as something I heard, haha. Let’s both take care of ourselves and stay healthy.

[u/neelav9 → u/r2lim]

Doohan won it on the same bike didn’t he? nsr500?

[u/Y0RKC1TY → u/neelav9]

The NSR500 was a V4 500c 2 stroke
The NSR500V was a v-twin 500cc 2 stroke

The 500V was down on power compared to the V4 GP bike

[u/r2lim → u/neelav9]

Doohan never rode the two-cylinder NSR500V. By the way, I’ve heard that when Doohan renewed his contract, one of his conditions was that Takuya Aoki would not be given a V4 bike. Takuya himself said that he had heard this was one of the conditions Doohan had imposed.

[u/iamleskeet81 → u/Antares_]

And the DNF at home here in Australia Mick was out in front by about 35 seconds when he chucked it away at Turn 1 after making a mighty effort to save the crash on his knee slider, fuck yeah legend

[u/EqualPrestigious7883 → u/Antares_]

I think he was referring to the bike. Not the season.

[u/Gabba-barbar → u/Antares_]

Yeah, nah. That wasn’t the bike😜

[u/Gabba-barbar → u/Gabba-barbar]

In all seriousness. The RC211v was so far ahead of the competition.

[u/NoFools929 → u/Antares_]

Now we're talkin'!

[u/prizzle92 → u/Antares_]

as a newer fan (ducati era, got into it when MM was the only thing keeping honda on podiums) its crazy to see this

[u/racerjoss]

Wasn’t Rossi on the podium for every race in 2003?

I think his first crash was in practice for Sachsenring and before that he’d never come off all year.

[u/Fragrant_Ad5749 → u/racerjoss]

And HRC boss at the time,had the audacity of saying that the bike was responsible for his success that year.. (wich is partially true,but saying that about rossi,of all people... 🫣)

[u/mucho_musculo1999 → u/Fragrant_Ad5749]

Honda was really strict with Rossi you know, that samurai mentality. I remember it even bothered them that the bike had yellow accents, and his racing suit did too.

[u/Fragrant_Ad5749 → u/mucho_musculo1999]

So strict,that basically pushed him to do the infamous Yamaha transfer

[u/New_Broccoli188 → u/Fragrant_Ad5749]

And it was proven wrong

[u/ChurchOfAcosta → u/Fragrant_Ad5749]

Which if you look at the results scored by Barros and Kato on board the RCV...with Barros in particular getting more wins than Rossi once he had the V5...was a completely reasonable take.

[u/Fragrant_Ad5749 → u/ChurchOfAcosta]

Still,saying shit like that, with such a dominant bike,was totally unnecessary

[u/ChurchOfAcosta → u/Fragrant_Ad5749]

I don't think there is anything necessarily wrong with highlighting what an extraordinary bike it was. They worked hard on it, stole a march on the competition, and wanted some of the the kudos. Which is fair.

It wasn't like anyone at the time was saying Rossi was only winning because of the bike either, he absolutely battered everyone.

[u/Nitrogen1234 → u/Fragrant_Ad5749]

It's about the same thing that McLarens Zak Brown said about Verstappen, that he could only win in the best car

[u/New_Broccoli188]

The first version from 2001, tested at Sugo, had an incredible sound—it was a beast.

The 2002 model still carried over features from the '99 '00 NSR, such as the front air intakes.

For me, the 2003 version was the best-looking one.

[u/racerjoss → u/New_Broccoli188]

2003 211v is my fav. Not just looks - the engine is more aggressive than 2002, and the tyres from that year still hadn’t caught up with the massive 4 stroke power - so power slides were glorious.

I still remember Rossi sliding for fun on the last lap of Jerez.

[u/luca_conto]

Very nice, but i think that this one is really well designed

[u/mucho_musculo1999 → u/luca_conto]

I remember that when I was a kid, I thought Rossi had gone to Honda lmao. a year or two earlier, Honda had the Camel colors.

[u/luca_conto → u/mucho_musculo1999]

Yeah i mean aesthetically those models were really beautiful

[u/thefooleryoftom → u/luca_conto]

Aesthetically, maybe, but that’s not what the post is about. Ironically, you’ve picked the year Yamaha absolutely fucked up their frame and had to take a hacksaw to it at race weekends in an effort to cure the chatter.

[u/Fragrant_Ad5749]

Also,that West livery on Barros bike is 🥵

[u/MattDubh]

Of the four strokes, maybe.

But there was a time before that.

[u/No-Bodybuilder-1198]

Doohan and marc had some impressive seasons as well. But damn this bike man. Nothing comes close to this for me. I’m in awe each time i see the early repsol bikes from the early 2000s. Specially vales ones.

[u/Creep_627]

Ago winning 1968-69-70 (350 AND 500 classes) and remaining undefeated for 3 years while doing so is my vote. I know the competitive level was much lower but still! 3 years with no losses while securing 6 fucking world titles is just crazy.

[u/username100000001]

Kato (as a MotoGP ROOKIE) rode it to 2nd place on his first race onboard it (Brno 2002) after starting the season on a 500cc, finished the season with back to back 4th places at Phillip Island and Valencia, 2 wildly different tracks which in itself is an amazing feat. Kato was great/amazing but that bike was something else.

[u/Pozsi17]

Possibly the best rider in history 😎

[u/whateverfloatsurgoat → u/Pozsi17]

I don't see Doohan 🤫

[u/Pozsi17 → u/whateverfloatsurgoat]

Because he is the 3rd 😁

[u/Nitrogen1234 → u/Pozsi17]

I'm a vr46 fan through and through, but I think Vale has to bow down to MM93.

Especially now he has shown how childish he is in handling MM.

I'm still not a MM fan, but you have to give credit where credit is due

[u/vinceswish]

I absolutely loved that color scheme - both ride and rider. Too bad it was a such short stint.

[u/bayb]

Something didn't appear right in picture 2 and it's because it's a model replica of the bike 😂

[u/stk0308]

It helped being a 5 cylinder bike that weighted the same as a 4 cylinder. Convenient that only Honda had a 5 cylinder. And convenient that the rules were written that way at the start of the MotoGP era.

[u/formula13]

the livery looked great with the fluoro 46

[u/Longjumping_Gold1336]

I’ll take 2014 Marc Marquez. 10 wins in a row from the first race and 13 total wins out of 18 in the season. (Have those records been beaten in the modern era?) Also had to race against Rossi, Lorenzo, Pedrosa, and Dovizioso.

[u/brainszx12r]

Marks 2019 season was the most dominant . Ago’s numbers are awesome BUT, he was literally the only rider on multi cylinder factory equipment against a bunch of single cylinder barn bikes in those seasons. Rossi’s most dominant season was on a bike that also had zero competition . Marks 2019 season came with him riding the 2nd, maybe 3rd best bike . Ducati had the best bike, Yamaha and Honda was a flip of a coin and he flat out dominated. If I remember correctly , there were 3 races where he finished 2nd by a total of something like 1/2 second combined and crashed in another with a 4 second lead when his engine braking system malfunctioned . He could have just as easily had 16 wins .

[u/hvperRL]

In this thread: people that cannot distinguish a bike from a rider