2011 Honda Cbr600 on 2040-motos

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Suzuka Eight Hour capers

Chatting to TT legend John McGuiness recently about his first Suzuka Eight Hour experience got me thinking of a few capers the boys and me managed a few years back at what is still Japan's most important race of the season. It is a unique event that starts at 11am and finishes at 7pm making  it a pukka endurance race as the last hour is run with headlights on in the dark. It is essentially an eight hour sprint that showcases the trickest endurance machinery and manufacturer’s sales can be affected the following year depending on who wins or loses.

475cc NS400R. Marquez and Spencer.

Winter may be here but I seem to be as busier than ever, maybe the economy is finally turning around. At my last UK track day of the year I had some fun testing this little beauty.  It’s a late eighties NS400 triple bored out to 475cc and it felt sweet as I zinged round the GP Arena track at Silverstone.   Being stripped bare to reduce weight gives it a very respectable power to weight ratio which means it could live with 600s (on the twisty bits at least).

The unseen Honda collection

IN AN UMARKED warehouse in Torrance, California, lies a collection of classic Honda cars and motorcycles from the past four decades - most have never been seen by public eyes.The collection was started by a former executive of American Honda, Tom Elliott, Honda USA's executive vice president for sales, John Mendel, tells the New York Times.“The problem was, we kept turning up more and more significant models that we couldn’t let go of,” said Mr. Mendel. We just kept parking them in this warehouse.