Honda's CRAZY Oval Piston Engine
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- čas přidán 19. 05. 2022
- This is a normal piston and THIS is an oval piston. Yes, it’s real and yes, it’s absolutely amazing.
Honda took a question that absolutely no one asked and answered it with one of the maddest engines you’ve ever seen. And by the way this isn’t some fancy prototype, they took it racing and even somehow sold a road-legal version.
Right, so how do you even get to the point where you need to build an oval engine?
It’s the late ‘70s and Honda have been out of the motorbike racing game for some time.
Motorcycle Grand Prix rules at the time stated that all engines had to have a maximum of four cylinders with a capacity of 500cc.
Honda had no problem sticking to those rules, but its young team of engineers decided to do things a little differently to their competitors.
The grid was dominated by 2-stroke engines. Honda were too edgy to follow the crowd and refused go down the same path as everyone else. Also, Soichiro Honda himself famously hated two stroke engines, describing them as ‘bamboo tubes with holes drilled’.
Because of that deep burning hatred, Honda became quite well known for making excellent four stroke engines.
Honda’s engineers realised that a four-stroke engine would need to rev to DOUBLE that of a two stroke just to make the same 120hp its competitors were getting.
They needed to find a way to make that possible and what they came up with is just mad.
They couldn’t increase the capacity beyond 500cc and the restrictions limited them to four cylinders, so they started by looking at the valve and intake system.
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When engineering goes so far down a rabbit hole it becomes art.
These days, it'd be banned because the regs say 4 "cylinders"
Thinking outside of the box is the reason for Honda's success
I have ridden the NR750. It is incredible. The bike was heavy, partly because it had an insanely heavy exhaust. The bodywork was carbon fibre that would chip so easily and the paint alone cost $7,500 per bike. The engine was extraordinary. It just revved and the torque was so flat you hit the rev limiter all the time. Not very powerful by fireblade standards of the time I think about 100HP. The designer was very unhappy that it got strangled because of the push for power limits in EU. To make it up to him Honda took one, changed the exhaust and ECU and used it to set some world records. Very cool turning up at my mate's work on it but was only allowed to borrow it for an afternoon.
Next time someone says "Who asked" just drop this link with the title, say it out loud for maximum intimidation
it wasnt crazy or mad.. Honda ONLY made that design choice because they understood the breathing capacity of 2-stroke vs 4... NOTHING to do with cramming 8 valves into a cylinder.. it was totally about the limits at the of piston speed & metallurgy .. piston rock becomes a serious problem once past the 1-1:5 bore stroke ratio for 4-strokes.. at that time .. so Honda defined the specs their prefered v8 would need.. & siamesed the cylinders together.. the rest just followed engine engineering convention.. twin conrods is a blindingly obvious need
Hi, in 2008 I noticed one in a parking lot in Ajax, Ontario and had to say hello and ask the rider about the bike. It had just over 100,000 klms on the odometer and was burning a touch of oil. He just topped it up a bit as needed. No major failures or rebuilds and he had enjoyed the bike, he had bought it used in good condition. I suggested he contact Honda, they might like to see an example of a long term survivor. I remember when it launched and could not afford one at the time. I was very happy to see a running bike so many years later. She still looked like sweet ride.
"$100k in today's money" Biden: "Imma make it $300k"
The engine not even honda Japan could rebore.
"Who wants to see this engine in a car?" ✋Yes, please! Would love to see a version of it power an F1 car---just for kicks, its time has probably passed otherwise. I remember the Honda NR, gorgeous bike, fueled many a teenage wet dreams... 💓Given the number of technological advances on the bike (beyond the oval pistons and 32(!) valves: the single arm for the rear wheel, the carbon fiber build, the exhaust under the seat, etc. which have all become industry standards), having it be the price of a Porsche 911 seemed perfectly reasonable at the time. It now trades for 40-50% higher than a new Porsche 911 on the second hand market!
MotoGP: V8 is banned.
Such a classic Honda move.
Thank you Scott. I'm 59 and I remember all the development of the project. Fantastic technology. I wonder if development had continued, as for example in F1, what would have happened, especially considering how the regulations allowed greater creative freedom in the 1980s. Would it have worked?
I was 13 years old when i saw that machine at the practice sessions of the 1981 British motorcycle Grand Prix at Silverstone. Freddie Spencer was riding the Honda NR 500 GP at that race. You have to remember you had push starts at the time, not standing starts like you have today in MotoGP. Now this oval piston machine was very difficult to start with a push start, and Freddie Spencer was practicing this over and over again in the pits strait because of this. It had an amazing sound though compared to the twins. It's an anecdote my dad always comes up with and now i saw this video popping up, so funny.
Don't forget that Honda also made the RC211V which is a V5 configuration for MotoGP.
It looks more like the double rods were to balance / control torque from twisting the piston within the cylinder ( elipse-inder?). With a single rod supporting it in the middle, it could seize very easily
I drove a CB400 four as a teenager and had all the fun in the world. Many times regretted selling it. My dreams were so real that I woke up to look for it in the garage when cruel reality kicks in. Awesome engine. Then older brother bought the CB 750
2:53
Honda also made legendary two stroke engines. They have twice as many power strokes per revolution. Closer to running off pure explosions, like a jet engine.
You should do a video on Honda's V5! That was an experimental motorcycle engine that actually performed incredibly well.