There was something else besides, for the all-new RC211V. The exhaust note was both unique and mellifluous, adding an intriguing rasp to the questing boom of a V4. Just as in the old days of the 125 five and the 250 six, Hondas took the leading role in the world championship soundtrack.
The new V5 was seen for the first time during 2001, when Honda’s latest champion Valentino Rossi and his team-mates tested it, after winning the Suzuka 8 Hours on a V4 production-based four-stroke Honda. Among other things, the first version was very compact. A bit too much so, in fact, for the lanky Rossi, who was underwhelmed. At the end of the season, having won the final two-stroke championship and his own first of seven premier-class crowns, he said so. “Maybe next year I will stay on the two-stroke.”
The next version was bigger, and Valentino tested it back-to-back with the NSR at Jerez, where he was alarmed to note that Japanese rider Daijiro Kato set a quicker lap time on the NSR than his own on the RCV. But building a new four-stroke for their star rider to reject didn’t fit Honda’s script.
Time would show that they were right. For 2002, the first four-stroke year, 500cc two-strokes were allowed to compete with the 990s. They put a good fight – but didn’t win a race. The extra torque of the four-strokes meant they could surge ahead under acceleration, then get in the way in the corners.
Halfway through the year, Rossi was still yearning for the lighter and more personal two-stroke. “Riding this bike is great fun. I like very much. But for me was better the two-stroke. It had more heart. To set the bike was more hard – if it was not at 100 per cent is a disaster. Also it is a big challenge for the mechanics. But in the end, the four-stroke is better than the two-stroke now.” Gradually but surely the V5 won his respect, and then his affection.
More importantly, it won races. Rossi equalled his own total of 11, set on the NSR the previous year; Repsol Honda teammate Tohru Ukawa won another, and satellite-team rider Alex Barros two more, giving the first RCV 14 wins out of 16 races. The rout had begun at Honda’s home circuit of Suzuka, originally commissioned by Soichiro himself.