While we don't have any images of Freddie on the Mr. Donut RVF in '92, we do have images of him on the Castrol RC45 at the 1999 Suzuka 8 hours event. image by kazz endo

The Suzuka 8 Hours world endurance round has ebbed and flowed over the years from being a run-what-you-brought rat bike race to a full-on factory arms race to what it is today, a more sedate Japanese national race with a great many endurance riders in it.

While today the event is run under world endurance rules and features essentially Superstock-style rules, this wasn't always the case. In the late 1980s and until the mid-1990s the 8 hour was held under TT-F1 rules. This meant, essentially, and especially in Honda's case, they were MotoGP bikes—more than ten years before the class came about.

Spencer didn't race the 8 Hours in '99 after a big crash where he injured his hands. image by kazz endo

Freddie Spencer attended the Suzuka 8 hours event last month as a guest of Honda. there he was afforded the chance to ride several of his old race bikes including his 1985 title-winning NSR500. What Spencer seemed most excited about, though, was that he was finally able to ride an RVF again.

In 1992 Spencer raced for the Two Brothers Racing team here in the US and his success there gave him an opportunity to race the Suzuka 8 Hours. He was to be teamed with American Tom Kipp and together they rode a Mister Donut-sponsored RVF in the prestigious event. The RVF of that era was a V-4, 750cc with all the technology HRC could throw at it.

These RVFs are now largely lost to history—no one remembers them it seems--but were some of the trickest bikes ever seen at a racetrack.

Spencer's teammate in 1999 at the Suzuka 8 Hours? None other than John Kocinski. Oh, the irony kills us. image by kazz endo

Spencer talked about the RVF he rode back then and again last month with much enthusiasm at the recent Mid-Ohio Superbike race.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s RVF Hondas were essentially MotoGP bikes, at least to a degree. The RVF that Spencer and Kipp rode in 1992 wasn't too different from the models that Wayne Gardner and Michael Doohan rode at the 8 Hours. Factory RVFs made 160 horsepower and weighed less than three hundred pounds.

"With lights," Spencer marveled.

With current MotoGP technology in mind a 160 horsepower, 300 pound motorcycle might not seem too legendary but consider this was 1989-1992 when US-based Superbikes struggled to get to 145 horsepower and 365 pounds in sprint form. The RVF was built to go for eight hours on the limit with a world class rider in the saddle. Grand Prix bikes of that era weighed 285 pounds and produced about 160 horsepower.

The amazing RVF750 that Wayne Gardner and Michael Doohan rode in the '91 Suzuka 8 hours sits in the Honda museum in Japan. image by Andrew Monachella

As memories fade and time passes, the factory RVFs built by HRC for the Suzuka 8 hours will probably be lumped in with the RC45s and the production-based machines which followed them. That's too bad, really, as the RVFs were some of the most amazing four-stroke race bikes in the pre-MotoGP era.