When I bought my first Honda - first bike period - it was known as the Interceptor. Nobody had any idea what a VF700F or VF750F was. The Interceptor name seemed fast and menacing. I've always been a fan of NAMING bikes or cars. Chevelles, Mustangs, Firebirds, etc seem so much better than a 325i or a QX60. Maybe that's why I don't like HDs with their alphabet soup names like FLHTS. Name it the Thunderpig or something more appropriate. I've often wondered why Honda tinkered with the Interceptor / VFR nomenclature over the years. I guess at this point, InterceptorDiscussion.com doesn't have the right ring to it either! I just know that when I tell people I have a VFR, they always scrunch up their eyebrows and clearly have no idea what I'm talking about.
Could the origin be related to the original "Mad Max" movie? Mels' police car was an Interceptor wasn't it? There may be some other "oldtimers" that remember the early 60s Ford special police cars had 'Interceptor" engines. Four barrel carbs, cams and solid lifters. They were factory hotrods.
The only Honda that springs to my mind that we used a name for is the Fireblade (CBR900), for the rest we pretty much use(d) CBR, FJR, GSX, GPZ, VFR, RD, etc etc
Could the origin be related to the original "Mad Max" movie? Mels' police car was an Interceptor wasn't it? There may be some other "oldtimers" that remember the early 60s Ford special police cars had 'Interceptor" engines. Four barrel carbs, cams and solid lifters. They were factory hotrods.
The police car I am sitting in says INTERCEPTOR on the trunk lid.
Interceptor is US-nomenclature isn't it? The rest of us just call them VFRs; certainly that's the case in the UK. I'm not sure I would have been as attracted to the VFR if it had been named Interceptor over here.....it doesn't really inspire the right image for me.
The only Honda that springs to my mind that we used a name for is the Fireblade (CBR900), for the rest we pretty much use(d) CBR, FJR, GSX, GPZ, VFR, RD, etc etc
Interceptors are a class of fighter plane, with the mission to intercept and destroy enemy aircraft.
When the Honda Interceptor launched, the sister V4s were also named: Magna, Sabre. There are also the Gold Wing and Shadows, too.
Weirder for me was that those early V4s were also called V45s and V75s. I always thought that that referred to cubic inches, but 45cu = 737ccs and 75cu = 1229cc. That can't be it!
A few members have posted photos of the "INTERCEPTOR" badge they got from a Crown Vic police car on their bikes. Not sure about Europe, but Honda named a good number of their bikes in the U.S. - Hawk, Blackbird, Goldwing, Hurricane, Nighthawk, Rebel - probably more I'm forgetting. It's odd that they dropped the Interceptor name on certain generations (3rd and 4th that I'm aware of) then brought it back on the 5th gen.
Bought my 83 Interceptor in Canada, always referred to it as an Interceptor. Don't really care where name came from. No one called it a VF750F then. Now I refer to my 8th gen '14 as an VFR800, like everyone else.
The Interceptor name was dropped with the 3rd gen here in the states to help insurance rates.
Insurance companies did not care that the 3rd gen was a Gentleman's Touring rig far removed from the race winning heritage of the original Honda V4's, they only see two kinds of bikes, Ninja bikes (or Interceptors) and Harley's.
The VF bikes came in three displacement sizes in the US (plus a 400cc model in other countries) and those sizes here were sold with the cubic inches closest to their cc rating V30 for the 500cc bikes, V45 for the 750cc bikes and V65 for the 1100cc bikes.
A friend sold me a V65 Sabre for a price I could not refuse when he was deployed back to the far east from San Diego. Torque monster of an engine...
In addition to the Superhawk, Fireblade, Hawk, Firestorm, Ninja, Blackbird, Goldwing, Silverwing, Shadow and Rebel don't forget that the first CBR was named the Hurricane.
I still think Joe Average (at least in "Murica) identifies more with names than the Letter/Number model displacement nomenclature even though the rest of the world appears to have very few bikes that were named.
I think it solely has to do with marketing, what will sell better where and what is best for the brand. That is why Acura stopped selling Legend's and Integra's and started selling TL's and RSX's, to place a greater emphasis on the make and less on the model.
99% of civilians don't care what Harley you ride, just that you ride a Harley. That's why they have that alphabet soup model designations.
And for what it's worth, I find people are equally as befuddled regardless if I ride an Interceptor or VFR.
I've never been able to figure out Harley's lettering system for their models. Actually, I've never really tried either. It just seems silly to me, especially since none of the riders refer to their bikes' letters but instead the names, like Softtail Classic, Dyna Low, etc. Maybe the lettering system makes it easier to do parts or custom upgrade matching to their bikes.
When I first got my 6th gen. I referred to it as an Interceptor, but I've rarely done that in a long time now, preferring to call it a VFR800. Like mk2davis above, however, I get blank looks from most non-riders when I tell them what I ride. I should probably just say it's a Honda sport-touring bike and leave it at that, because I always end up having to explain what a VFR is anyway. :dry:
"Interceptor" is pretty cool, but I do like some of the other Honda nicknames, especially Hornet and Fireblade.
The one time I got pulled over while on my motorcycle last year (yes, my one and only time!), the officer asked what kind of bike was I riding, I said it was a Honda Interceptor. Then I paused and said, "Um, VFR is the more commonly known name". He said "I couldn't tell what it was, it's a nice bike, but you should keep your speed down"
I like the Interceptor name but I just refer to mine as a VFR I don' add any numeric to it i.e. VFR800.
I think for some reason the american marketing department at Honda decided that potential customers needed to have a model name for their future purchase. It was the same way in Canada in the beginning(83-85), but stopped calling Interceptor here after that. I did find it odd that Honda even used Interceptor since Ford had been using that name for more than a decade. I had heard rumours when the Magna came out that Honda wanted to use Magnum but Dodge was using it already.
The 5th gen VFR in Canada had no reference to Interceptor on it. Fairing side panels in Canada had PGMFI under the VFR name on the lower of the side fairing. I had found that most anyone I ran into during those years did not know how to spot an Interceptor, v45 Magna was just called by most a v45, and the first few months I owned the 83 v65 all anyone ever called it was "don't race that bike". Confused many cars at the street races in the first few months, very few knew the v65 was out.
I would always rather have a name than a number or alpha combo.
DO YOU WANT TO DATE 391-87-8790 OR DO YOU WANT TO DATE JENNIFER?
I thought it was 8675309....
Jennifer gives everybody a different number!
I would always rather have a name than a number or alpha combo.
DO YOU WANT TO DATE 391-87-8790 OR DO YOU WANT TO DATE JENNIFER?
Looks like a Social Security number to me. If that's the case, she would be from Wisconsin . . .
Oddly enough, my wife IS from Wisconsin - and no that isn't her SSN. :cool: .........and she DOES NOT know about Jennifer so keep that between you and I and 14,000 other VFRD members.
Mailman, I think you missed my reference, maybe this will help...
I gotcha on the Tommy Tutone and the randomness of Jennifer and Jenny. ---> More usless trivia === If you call that number here in the Denver area, you get Ben Franklin Plumbing.
FL = Big twin in big frame. Preceded by the EL. (It is rumored that Honda snatched the "GL" designation for the new goldwings before HD could use it just to jab at them)
H = Used to mean a higher state of tune or "HOT" with a lumpier cam, but they are all the same now.
T = Touring (duh)
P = Police model
I = Fuel Injected
Sporters are XL
Superglides/Dynas (Big Twins in sportier frames with Sporter forks) are FX
I was in high-school when the original Interceptors arrived in the states. I fell in love with the bikes and the name. "Interceptor" is a fantastic name for a sport bike since it implies a mission profile based on dominating all challengers through agility and, especially, speed. Contrast that name with, say, "Ninja" which implies "stealth" and never made sense to me as a name for a motorcycle -- unless maybe that motorcycle shipped with no lights, a built-in radar detector, and an anechoic paint job.
I agree with the gist of the previous posts in that the decline in popularity of model names is probably due to globalization and product name saturation. When Ford released the "Mustang" fifty years ago, their customers were mostly in the states and there just weren't that many named product lines of any sort. It was easy pickings for product managers. These days, we have 50 more years of accumulated names and even our phones have branded product lines. Companies are selling their products into dozens of countries with a baffling tangle of idioms and positive or negative associations for a given word. So we get anodyne, "safe" designations like VFR800 and made-up words like "Versys" that are guaranteed to be fresh and unique.
The only theory from the previous posts that I question is probably the insurance explanation (i.e. "Interceptor" made the bikes expensive to insure). I assume insurance rates are set by actuarial analysis of claims paid and owner demographics. I'd be surprised if, hypothetically, the insurance rates on Kawasaki sport bikes dropped simply because the company changed the name from "Ninja" to something less aggressive like "Panda".
I would always rather have a name than a number or alpha combo.
DO YOU WANT TO DATE 391-87-8790 OR DO YOU WANT TO DATE JENNIFER?
Well one is an inanimate object and the other is a human being. As much as I like my bike, I've never felt compelled to give it a name.
But in our fire department (I am the chief in our volunteer dept) we go by numbers and not names, Assigned numbers are unique, unlike names, so there is no confusion.
Here we donot use the RC51 monniker much, simply SP1 or SP2...
The cop that pulled me over after I thundered (ok ok she is not a V2 but the Akra sounds good) through the tunnel at first look (ok ok it was dark at night) said "is it an SP1?" when I told him it was a Honda..... :cool:
Doesn't anyone remember the Danforth "Motorcycle Safety Act of 1987"? More info here. That is what put an end to "aggressive-sounding" motorcycle names in the USA...for a while!
I like it when an alphabetical and/or numerical model name/# actually means something related to the bike. VFR800 = V-Four Racing 800cc is fine. (Except it's not a racing bike.) The V-Strom is a DL650 for the 650cc version (though I don't know what the DL stands for.) It kind of bugs me when manufacturers make up names and #s. Someone above mentioned the Kaw. Versys. I know it's a made-up word that is supposed to intone "versatile" but it just seems dumb to me. The aforementioned V-Strom is another one. Just use a real word.
Many automotive companies use different model names in different markets. Try to find a Nissan Sentra or a Mitsubishi Montero outside of the United States/N. America. We should be surprised when this happen in motorcycling either. I'm fortunate to carry both badges due to decisions by prior owners. I have a US spec 6th Gen carrying the Interceptor name, but my bags were apparently ordered from Europe and carry the VFR name.
As for cars.....
FIAT sells the Croma...
where in NL, Croma is a brand of margarine (and FIAT means For Italians Adequate Technology)
:goofy:
In the US, we used "Fixed It Again, Tony" when they were in the US market before their most recent reentry with the 500.
I like it when an alphabetical and/or numerical model name/# actually means something related to the bike. VFR800 = V-Four Racing 800cc is fine. (Except it's not a racing bike.) The V-Strom is a DL650 for the 650cc version (though I don't know what the DL stands for.) It kind of bugs me when manufacturers make up names and #s. Someone above mentioned the Kaw. Versys. I know it's a made-up word that is supposed to intone "versatile" but it just seems dumb to me. The aforementioned V-Strom is another one. Just use a real word.
FWIW (and this is an admittedly low value), according to a web page found on Honda Motor Co. a few years ago, "VFR" means:
V型4気筒（FOUR）のロードスポーツモデル。
Which Google translates as "Road sports model of the V-type four-cylinder (FOUR)."
So, the "R" does not stand for "racing", but "road". (I told you is wasn't worth much!)
But let's not get hung up on marketing names--either Japanese ones or American ones. They're all just marketing spin. I have a huge collection of J-spec brochures from the 1990s, from which we can learn that the "RR" in CBR400RR means "Real Response", and that the RC36-I is an "Advanced Super Sport" model...
Ciao,
End of thread · 33 posts recoveredWayback Machine snapshot 10 Nov 2015
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