During this year’s iteration of the annual EICMA show in Milan, Italy, the Japanese automobile giants unveiled their latest superbike, the RC213V-S. The powerhouse of a bike is based on the company’s MotoGP winner bike, the RC213V MotoGP racer. Honda racing put on show two different versions of the bike, one covered in the colours of the Japanese flag dedicated to the completion of the 100 years of the EICMA show and the other more subtle one driven on-stage by the current MotoGP champion Marc Marquez.
The 2013 and 2014 world champion, Marc Marquez talked about how the RC213V-S was the perfect street bike for him. The name, RC213V-S also carries significance. The “RC” is the traditional Honda lettering for their 4-stroke racing bikes. The 213 means that the bike is designed for the 21st century. The S stands for street, and the V stands for the engine type. This is not the first time that Honda unveiled a street legal superbike to the world. Almost a year ago, Honda released its MotoGP production racer, the RCV1000R. The machine was produced in limited numbers by Honda, only 1500, and was a masterpiece of engineering. Honda is not the only 2-wheeler manufacturer taking interest in the unexploited market of street-legal super bikes. Kawasaki also recently announced the release of their 300 bhp supercharged street bike.
Every bit of the street-legal superbike is carved out of carbon fibre making the RC213V-S one of the lightest and most powerful bikes in the market. Under the hood, the bike is powered by a 1-litre, 54 cubic inch V4 engine. The auto maker has declined to reveal any information about the technical specifications of the RC213V-S, but the bike is expected to be almost the same as its MotoGP counterpart. The superbike is expected to be able to churn out more than 200 horsepower of maximum power, all thanks to Honda’s V4 engine technology.
RC213V-S resembles its MotoGP counterpart in almost every way, the only major difference being that it comes with a headlight. The superbike comes with MotoGP grade electronics, suspensions and another component. The street version of the superbike will come with a wet clutch instead of the dry clutch in its MotoGP sibling. Notably, the bike will be produced in limited numbers only and according to rumours, is expected to come with a price tag of around 20 million yen or almost Rs. 1.03 crore.
