Honda CBR 100RR-SP2 Red Bull Suzuka Race Bike

This is the Team Honda Red Bull Suzuka Race Bike. “Win at all costs” is the mantra being used by the Red Bull Honda team, which will field PJ Jacobsen, Takaaki Nakagami, and Takumi Takahashi at the 2018 edition of the Suzuka 8 Hour race.

To do this, Honda has built a special machine. A one-off superbike, this Honda CBR1000RR SP2 was designed to race at only one race track, for only one race, for only three riders. This Honda represents everything that HRC knows about making an endurance racing machine.

Here is a brief overview on the Honda CBR1000RR SP2 taken from Asphalt and Rubber

Clad in Öhlins suspension, Nissin brakes, and Bridgestone tires, the Red Bull Honda team has leveraged some of the best in the business to win at Suzuka, and these three choices are critical.

Typically we see Honda partnering with Showa suspension, but lately HRC has been using Öhlins (and the mountain of data and development that the Swedish brand brings with it) for its racing applications.

At one point in time, there had been a goal of developing Showa into an Öhlins rival (HRC accounts for roughly half of Showa’s business), but the use of the “gold bits” here shows that Honda has taken a more pragmatic approach for Suzuka. Remember, win at all costs.

Honda is however staying with Nissin, another Japanese brand that has strong ties to Big Red. This isn’t surprising, since Honda owns over ⅓ of Nissin’s publicly traded stock. But, this move does fly in the face of the paddock standard of using Brembo brakes.

However, Nissin has benefitted greatly from Honda’s co-development of the brand, and as a result the Nissin braking package has improved immensely.

As such, the braking components on the Red Bull Honda CBR1000RR SP2 are straight from Nissin’s MotoGP program, adapted for quick-change pit stops of course. The feedback is little different with Nissin, especially on brake-release, but Honda’s riders have had little issue adapting to them.

Lastly, Bridgestone tires are the de facto ingredient for winning at Suzuka, as the Japanese tire brand has figured out how to make a tire last around this incredibly long and difficult circuit, during the blistering heat of summer.

Moving our way around the machine, we see copious amounts of carbon fiber being used – spare no expense, and win at all costs – but we also see tricks of the trade, to ensure as little time is spent in the pits as possible.

Crash buttons have been integrated into the fairing design, streamlined from the wind, but ready to protect the important bits during a topple.

Cropped partially out of view, we can also see the side-mount for Honda’s lifting stand, right in front of the generator cover. This easy system to lift the bike helps get the front wheel off the ground, while the rear-end is lifted with a more traditional swingarm stand.

If you watch pit stop practice videos from Suzuka, it is clear why such a lift is a huge benefit in the pits, where every second counts.

The rear swingarm has been modified from the production version, though keeps a very similar shape to it. Its rigidity has likely been increased, for added stiffness, and lightened for less unsprung weight.

Also visible is the full titanium exhaust, which was made in-house at HRC. Honda’s ability to make custom parts doesn’t end there, of course, and I think one of my favorite details is the rear brake lever, which has an added step on it.

This likely not only gives the riders a larger platform to push on when braking, but also has the added benefit of allowing the rear brake to be actuated after a crash snaps the toe lever off.

It is clever details like this that sets Honda above the rest, especially at Suzuka.