HONDA RACING INFORMATION


Honda take record 17th Senior Class Constructors World Championship title

With a record 17th Constructors' World Championship title now secured,
fittingly at Honda's 'home' track of Twin Ring Motegi, the factory can now
boast an amazing 203 victories in the premier class since 1966. The year of
Honda's first foray into the highest echelon of two-wheeled competition -
40 years ago.

Honda has now accelerated past the illustrious MV Agusta firm, which has 16
World Constructors' Championships to its name. And it was Honda who
deprived MV of a Rider's and Constructors Championship 'double' in 1966
when the Japanese factory won its first premier class Manufacturers' title
in its rookie year of top level involvement.

Many are the famous riders who have tasted World Championship success with
Honda: Hailwood, Spencer and Doohan, to name but three. But the machines
they rode are equally legendary, and perhaps the RC211V will emerge as one
of the most effective of all.

Having now won four Constructors' titles in the five seasons of the new
four-stroke MotoGP era Honda's blindingly powerful, effortlessly tractable
and numbingly reliable 990cc V5 engine has proved to be the dominant
power-plant of the age - as an integral part of a compact mass-centralised
chassis that has proved good enough to win 47 Grands Prix since its
introduction for the four-stroke/two-stroke 2002 season.

And if any proof were needed of the RC211V's rider-friendly qualities (in
so far as a 150kg motorcycle with a 250bhp power output can be considered
friendly), the fact that so many different riders have won races on it:
nine riders in five years, indicates it is one of those rare racing
motorcycles with which the best riders can win on and lesser talents can
compete harder with.

And Honda has a history of producing premier class machines like this. With
the notable exception of the RC181 of the 1960s, the three-cylinder NS500
two-stroke that powered Freddie Spencer to his first World Championship in
1983 was also supremely effective tool as a customer bike. Mick Doohan's
NSR500 V4 was all-conquering in the five-time World Champion Australian's
hands and then it proved just as effective a title-winning machine for Alex
Criville and then Valentino Rossi. Any bike that can muster 22 successive
wins across the 1997 and 1998 seasons, a record that still stands, has to
be something of an engineering phenomenon.

The RC211V as leased to satellite teams is proving just as successful, with
Fortuna Honda rider Marco Melandri on a customer 2005-specification machine
winning three Grands Prix so far this season. Melandri was the rider who
clinched the title for Honda at Motegi.

Then there's the resounding success of the 'Evolution' RCV with which
factory rider Nicky Hayden leads the Rider's World Championship. This
advanced version of the RCV has proved highly competitive virtually
straight from the design process, while Dani Pedrosa's factory RCV
developed from the 2005 bike has proved more than up to the task of winning
in 2006. Both riders have two wins apiece so far this season (check Motegi).

As the 800cc era dawns for the 2007 season, there can be little doubt that
Honda is once again likely to be at the leading edge of advanced
development, constructing exotic and yet highly effective motorcycles
designed to win races, expanding technological horizons and enabling
satellite teams to compete on as level a footing as possible with the full
factory operations.

Satoru Horiike, Managing Director of Honda Racing Corporation, was
delighted with the
Victory and said. "As Honda we are very proud of the 2007 Constructors
Championship
Victory and particularly happy that we reached our goal at our home track
of Twin Ring
Motegi. Now we must concentrate all our energy on winning the riders
championship title."


Honda World Constructors Championship titles.

1966 - RC181
1983 - NS500
1984 - NS500 / NSR500
1985 - NSR500
1989 - NSR500
1992 - NSR500
1994 - NSR500
1995 - NSR500
1996 - NSR500
1997 - NSR500
1998 - NSR500
1999 - NSR500
2001 - NSR500
2002 - RC211V
2003 - RC211V
2004 - RC211V
2006 - RC211V

Bah en fait ils disent que Hayden et Pedrosa ne suffisent pas et que le HRC serait sur le coup d'embaucher Plume

Rassure toi Plume, pour traduire je prends reverso

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