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Is this the first time a gen 8 vfr800 has raced officially in a hill climb

23 posts Started 27 Nov 2014 Last recovered post 12 Dec 2015 Wayback Machine snapshot 25 Jan 2016
#1 LoopRider Thread starter
At the Burt Munro Challenge Hill Climb today, former Superbike Racer Aaron Slight was racing a new model of the VFR800. Picture from Bike Rider Magazine Facebook Page

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#2 Skids

Where did he come?


#5 Like This

Amazing how much a simple paint job can completely change the look of a bike.  Looks pretty good.

#7 LoopRider Thread starter
Yes he does appreciate a good V4. Spoke with Aaron Slight by chance today and he said he raced it completely stock including the tyres. He thinks he came 5th on the Hill Climb against the likes of Cam Donald on open class 1000cc machines. Not bad for a sport tourer! I shot some photos with my camera of the rear tyre, still looks very good condition. I will upload those once I get home. The bike is just sitting at the Honda dealer today before he races it at Teretonga Raceway tomorrow. I could not help but pose for a photo, a nice looking bike these 800s.

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#8 MADMICK

Aaron Slight was my favorite rider back in the day and it's a real shame he didn't win the World Superbike Championship, he certainly deserved too. With a bit of luck he would have, but the racing Gods were not in his favour. He and His Castrol RC45 were a potent combination, poetry in motion you mite say. He certainly would have been a deserving Champion. It's great to see he's still out there thrashing a Honda V4. Cheers and Good Luck to him.


#11 windyrun

Reminds me a little of an s1000rr with the three 111s on the side (like the s1000's shark gills) and two tone paint


#12 Like This

+  a  very  skilled  rider .

#13 Like This

Slackjawed at this, especially the OEM can!

#14 Like This
I always thought Aaron and the Castrol Honda team were robbed of a few WSBK titles with the quite unfair, IMO, big twin formula that WSBK used those years that let Foggy and his Ducati riding pals have that 250cc advantage over the four cylinder competition, that included the V4s from Honda..... By the time Kocinsky was finally able to get a championship on the RC45. Honda had to do all sorts of GP grade mods on the 45's and pour millions and millions of dollars in R&D (IIRC, the 45's were just a very few seconds off the GP times in some circuits and according to some observers, might be actually be faster on terminal speed than the Honda GP bike in certain gearings)..... unfortunately just a bit too late for Aaron Slight....
These brave men gave us what I think were the golden years of WSBK with the epic battles between Honda and Ducati especially.
Cheers to Aaron for giving it his all with the "V-Force" bikes we love!!
Edited by Beck, 29 November 2014 - 07:31 PM.
#15 Like This

The Ducs were having an advantage for sure.

One of my fondest WSBK memories was Assen 1998, sitting at the Geert Timmer amongst a huge English crowd.

We all know what happened at Race 2, but race 1 was a belter too..

[video: https://youtube.com/embed/6BK1jcoYo3c?html5=1&fs=1]

If I ever do a complete paint job on my VFR, it will be the Castrol scheme of that era....

[image: FD98.06Fogarty.jpg]

NACA"s!!!!

[image: aaron-slight-honda-rc45-superbike-1.jpg]

In 2000, had access to a ground floor VIP box that had been built (near the GT) and on training day we hosted -among others- a dutch family that had lived in NZ.  Their 8 year old daughter had a NZ flag and we stood on the grass by the entrance lane to the pits. Aaron pulled over to say thank you. 2000 not a good year for Aaron, just as it was the year that ended Foggy's career...

#16 Like This

I always thought Aaron and the Castrol Honda team were robbed of a few WSBK titles with the quite unfair, IMO, big twin formula that WSBK used those years that let Foggy and his Ducati riding pals have that 250cc advantage over the four cylinder competition, that included the V4s from Honda..... By the time Kocinsky was finally able to get a championship on the RC45. Honda had to do all sorts of GP grade mods on the 45's and pour millions and millions of dollars in R&D (IIRC, the 45's were just a very few seconds off the GP times in some circuits and according to some observers, might be actually be faster on terminal speed than the Honda GP bike in certain gearings)..... unfortunately just a bit too late for Aaron Slight....
These brave men gave us what I think were the golden years of WSBK with the epic battles between Honda and Ducati especially.
Cheers to Aaron for giving it his all with the "V-Force" bikes we love!!

Alan Cathcart tested the Castrol Honda RC45 and the Repsol NSR500 at the end of one season and said it was hard to pick which one was fastest! (from the seat of the pants dyno). Pretty sure they were getting 190 ponies out of the 750 around then.

For all their 2-stroke success, HRC were/are undoubtedly the masters of 4-stroke performance.
 

#18 Like This

Wow  rough   road  !!

#19 Like This
Yeah, that's a brutal road! Sounds good for a stock bike tho.
#20 Like This

Rumour has it that the 4-stroke and 2-stroke development teams at Honda/HRC had a bit of informal competition for who could make the most power and the RC45 engine just edged the NSR 500. Probably a shade under 200 HP then.

Not sure if that's true or if this particular engine configuration actually raced in WSBK, though.

The WSBK technical regulations certainly stacked the deck against the 4 cylinders and against 'large' manufacturers.

#21 fink
Nice pics indeed. Well done.

Getting off the subject. It kind of blows all the doubters out of the water doesn't it?
#22 Beck
I have heard that Honda's R&D costs going into the WSB program at that time was challenging the amounts they were investing into GP racing...... Honda being so desperate to finally beat the Ducatis..... They had to wait for John Kocinsky to finally slay the red Italian dragons.....Edwards seems to have followed a similar track with his career as Slight's. A crowd favorite, but always short of winning it all..... I think his career jumped the shark after that Aprilia exploded into flames under him.....
#23 thecat
I bought the bike. It arrives on Tuesday. Came off the yellow Vfr two weeks ago and sadly it will be written off due to extensive damage on the right flank plus bent forks. Several broken ribs, some road rash and bruised feet mean I won't be riding for some weeks yet but it'll be good to have a bike back in the shed to fuss over. Like the graphics but probably will cover up the 111 as I live in the same general area as Aaron!
End of thread · 23 posts recovered Wayback Machine snapshot 25 Jan 2016