Honda's CRAZY Oval Piston Engine

MotoGP: V8 is banned. Honda: let me just.... Merge these cylinders into four big ovals ... Its a V4 i swear

When engineering goes so far down a rabbit hole it becomes art.

Such a classic Honda move. “I wonder if this will work?” “Oh look at that! It worked!!… well, we’ll never do that again.”

Thinking outside of the box is the reason for Honda's success

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 am passionate about motorcycles, and until today, I use the NR 750 as an image for my channel. Greetings from a Brazilian subscriber.

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.

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.

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.

These days, it'd be banned because the regs say 4 "cylinders"

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

You should do a video on Honda's V5! That was an experimental motorcycle engine that actually performed incredibly well.

“And in 1983, they had a virgin that achieved 130HP.” Great video! Very interesting stuff, and very well explained! Honda has always been one of my favourite brands.

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

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.

Why? Well, aside from Mr. Honda's dislike of 2 strokes, by the time Honda started work on this engine, the other Japanese manufacturer's had managed to... "persuade" (by means that nobody will discuss to this day) the FIM to; - increase the 2-stroke displacement limit from 350cc's (which had made them competitive with a 500cc 4-stroke) to 500cc; - ban any type of "forced induction" - like a supercharger, while at the same time allowing the use of expansion pipes. Which, on a 2-stroke, accomplishes the same thing - just pulling the intake charge in, instead of pushing it (and which doesn't work on a 4-stroke engine); and finally - limiting the engines to 4 cylinders. All of which made sure that no 500cc, 4 stroke, 4 cylinder engine stood a snowball's chance in Hell against a Kawasaki, Yamaha, or Suzuki 500cc race bike. Until this engineering tour-de-force Honda reared it's sadly almost-but-not-quite head...

2:53 I suspect it's more to do with the preventing the piston racking in the bore given the width.

Remember having a poster of this on my wall in my teen years, one of the best looking bikes to come out of Japan.... Ever. This was like the Bugatti Veyron of motorcycle technology, they even tinted the windshield with a thin layer of titanium rather than using plastic film

Its honestly so impressive that they managed to get a 500cc 4 stroke to have the same power output as a 500cc 2 stroke, even with the extra 20kg thats just insane to me

The oval piston engine (0X engine, developed in 1979) was a product of Honda's drive to conquer technical challenges.