SENSATIONAL SIX!
Forty years ago this summer, TT fans in the Isle of Man got their first view of Honda’s CBX in action when it was used by the travelling marshals. Although for news value the use of the new six-cylinder superbike on the 37.73-mile Mountain circuit was partly overshadowed by Mike Hailwood’s legendary return in 1978 after an 11 years absence from the island, it was a great coup for Honda.
The appearance of the CBX at the TT that year was the result of a last-minute effort by management at Honda UK to have four machines flown from Japan, and the culmination of just over two years of research and development that started at the beginning of 1976.
At the time, Honda had been refocusing its efforts after a reorganisation with a new R&D facility and motorcycle division at Asaka near Tokyo headed by Shoichiro Irimajiri, the still-young engineer who had been responsible for some of Honda’s racing engine designs that had been so successful in the 1960s. Irimajiri had already been responsible for some innovative and unique road bike designs, leading the team that developed the Gold Wing tourer launched for 1975 and the equally-novel CX500.
In the spring of 1976, Irimajiri created a project team to develop two motorcycle engines, one with four-cylinders the other with six but both with double-overhead camshafts and four-valves per cylinder, the arrangement used on the earlier racing machines that offered more potential for power than the single-overhead-cam two-valve set up used until then on Honda’s four-cylinder road bikes.
Independently, the Honda Racing Service Centre at Suzuka, under former GP team manger Michihiko Aika had revived its racing programme with special machines developed for endurance events in Europe. These
