After introducing its world-beating DOHC V-4 powered superbikes in the early 1980s, by the late ’90s, Honda reconsidered its approach to World Superbike road racing machinery. For that competition, developing an all-new 90-degree V-twin was in order. The result was the Honda VTR1000SP1 in 1999.
In truth, the “all-new” description of the Honda V-twin is a bit nuanced. Many competing brands were already fielding V-twins—Ducati, Aprilia, and Bimota among them.
However, Honda has never been one to follow the pack. After all, Honda rider Fred Merkel had won two FIM Superbike World Championship titles on the RC30, and John Kocinski took another in 1997 on the RC45, proving the 750cc V-4 a winning powerplant.
Eventual two-time World Superbike champion Colin Edwards was among the first to transition from the Honda V-4 to the 999cc V-twin VTR1000SP1 in early 1999. Joining Texan Edwards aboard the new twin was New Zealander Aaron Slight. Slight was riding for the UK-based HRC Castrol Honda team. Despite the UK home base, the team was a full-on factory effort from Japan. The race bikes featured Japanese-manufactured Nissin brakes and Showa suspension.
“The old saying goes that there is no replacement for displacement, and that still stands true,” said Edwards 20 years after he won the first of his two WorldSBK crowns, reflecting on the rationale for the switch from 750cc V-4 to 999cc V-twin.
Of course, more displacement wasn’t the only factor, as Edwards pointed out: “The thing with the twin was that it was like riding a Supersport bike. It had such easy, deliverable power. There was no hit. You could do it in your sleep. It was such an easy bike to ride compared to the four cylinders.”
Edwards had advocated for the switch to 1000cc twins prior to his move to the VTR1000SP1. “Before I joined Honda, I was with Yamaha, and I said to them, ‘Let’s build a twin!’” Edwards relates. “Then, when I joined Honda, they decided they were going to do it. So, obviously we were excited about it, knowing what Honda can do with motors. They had the ability to extract a lot of power out of it, and we were excited about it.”
Edwards explains the VTR1000SP1’s early development:
We heard in 1998 that they were building it. We went testing on it in Australia, at Phillip Island and Eastern Creek in, I think, February 1999. It was a full year before they even brought the bike out. I rode two days on the twin at Phillip Island. The bike was way slow. It was in a somewhat production mode at that time, and it did not have any kit on it to speak of. But our lap times were about three-quarters of a second behind the RC45, I want to say, and we were going about 20 to 25 kilometers per hour slower down the straight. We knew it was slow just because they had not had any time to develop it. We knew we could get more power out of it, but at that time, we had just started playing with fueling and mapping.
Despite much ground to cover in development, on-track set-up for the V-twin proved uncomplicated. “It was definitely easier to set up,” Edwards recalls.
Despite the need for a great deal of performance improvement in the bike’s first season—a season in which nine different riders on seven different makes won races—Honda’s new V-twin and Edwards still secured the title. He took eight race wins, including the first and last races of the season. Honda’s move to the V-twin VTR1000SP1 produced 400 championship-winning points.
Edwards contemplated whether the 2000 title was more man or machine, saying, “I think it was both things.” He was certainly ready to win outright as much as the new bike was.
“I finished second the year before, and I had been improving year-by-year,” Edwards says. “My level of riding was getting to the top level and ready to fight for the championship. At the same time, the bike we brought out was easier to ride, but by no means perfect. The SP2, I would say, was perfect. That was a great bike. The SP1, we did have to play around with it. It was not like every race was awesome.”
Adding to the drama and stress of trying to win against World Superbike competition while simultaneously advancing development of the bike, tire wars were fought during the season.
“It was stressful!” Edwards remembers. “We had that tire thing going on, and then you would show up at Sugo or Donington, or anywhere where Dunlop were on point, and there was nothing you could do. We did have bad weekends, and you just had to come out of a bad weekend the best you could.”
The amount of test time available on WorldSBK circuits was limited, so Edwards had to make the most of the opportunities. He did so, especially in France. “I think that was around the time that you had two allocated test tracks, and we did more tests at Clermont-Ferrand for Michelin than anywhere,” Edwards reveals. “We could not have done without that.”
WorldSBK Ducati great Carl Fogarty had been eliminated from the 2000 season and, ultimately, his career due to a severe shoulder injury. Regardless, Edwards was given no break in his title drive. Noriyuki Haga and his homologation-special Yamaha rapidly became competitive.
Edwards recounts Haga’s challenge: “The first race, in South Africa, I won. Haga was right there with me and Fogarty. In the second race, Haga just cleared off by seconds. He was gone, and I was riding my ass off. It was just weird. Why had he not done that in the first race? A setting change? Whatever, I dunno, but it was a little bit abnormal, I thought at the time.”
In elite-level racing that spanned the globe, Edwards won the title on Honda’s first WorldSBK V-twin and did it again on the SP2 in 2002. That first winning season in 2000 blew everybody’s mind; it took every joule of energy and spark of inspiration the manufacturer, technical partners, team, and rider had to achieve that first WorldSBK title with the Honda VTR1000SP1.
Edwards talks about the teamwork required for success in World Superbike competition:
Adrian Gorst was my crew chief, which he had been since 1998, and Neil Tuxworth was leading the team, We had a really good crew. Honda put in a lot that year; I would say a full factory effort. We had some Japanese staff come around race-by-race. As far as the amount of effort that was put in, I would say maximum. There was nothing that we were missing. That was also the first year that me and Valentino Rossi did the Suzuka 8-Hour. So, all of this went into developing the bike. It was a big, big effort on the twin that year.
We won WorldSBK. We beat Ducati and the bike was awesome, but the 2002 bike was even way better. It was a development thing. We did the whole first two years with the SP1, found out where our weaknesses were, where we could make it better, and built that into the 2002 models. That is just R&D, but from where they started in 2000, obviously, they started at a really good spot, and we won the championship.
When it was all done and dusted, in three years of WorldSBK competition, the Honda RC51 platform achieved 26 victories, 30 podiums, and championship titles in 2000 and 2002 with Colin Edwards aboard, and it all started with the VTR1000SP1 in 1999 on Australian soil.
