1964 3RC164 (RC 166) Honda 250/6. Demonstration laps at Cadwell Park. Rider is Jim Redman - and the event the Team Obsolete Transatlantic Match races July 1998. Filmed using JVC camcorder GR 323.
To sit on the banking at Bradden in 1966 and watch Mike Hailwood and Stuart Graham pass by on The RC166's in full war cry is something never to be forgotten! I have seen the the RC166s ridden many times since at different circuits! but they were never ridden in anger! to hear them all the way up towards Union Mills was just something else.
The shear offensiveness of their race engines and the fear that they put into the hearts of their competitors '64-'67 is what has made me a lifelong Honda fan..
Stirs the emotions this ole girl , thank you Soichiro Honda and your amazing engineering team , few understand what went creating this particular engine and considering we are in the early 60's period wise ....... Amazing
Some engines are just unforgetable, I was at Cadwell that day and when the 250/6 was out of sight on the mountain section it sounded like the F1 Ferrari V12 at Spa. Brilliant wee bike
Heart this legend in 1980 during a demonstration at the Dutch TT in Assen. Once you have heart this music, it will never leave you again. It almost brings me to tears every time I hear it.
They were so finely engineered that the crankshaft mains were all sized for the individual stresses they bore as were the camshaft bearings. I imagine that level of detail was utilised throughout.
I could sleep all night listinging to that beautiful scream. Magic time indeed - when there was no limits. We as a race have gone backwards on the Teck front.
I was lucky to see the one and only Mike Hailwood riding the 297cc version at Brands Hatch Race of the South 1968 I didn't know that what I was watching was so very special !
I remember standing at Brands Hatch watching THE great Mick Hailwood lap Brands on this WTF glorious bike. I can't find the right words, but great bike and a really great human riding it.
Honda were way ahead of they’re rivals back in the day , what a bike and what a sound , what a machine , 17000 revs was unheard of in the 60s , you’d be luck if you could get 6000 revs out of a British bike and then it would probably blow up lol Soichiro Honda trained his engineers very well .
Look up " Mad Contraption " in the Encyclopaedia Galactica and you will find a Picture of one of these . That NOISE though........................................................................
You are right. Redman must have started his demonstration on the start and finish straight and, on his first lap, he ran off the track at Hall Bends. The ambulance set off to attend to him but before it reached the spot he was up and on his way again. I saw the machine later and, other than a broken screen, damage seemed to be superficial.
I think Japanese are good at making small engines, Honda f1 in the 80's was the best, 1,500 hp with turbo in 1500㏄. But the Japanese are not interested in racing, so Japanese manufacturers don't race either. The only thing the Japanese are interested in now is fuel efficiency and interior space. Yeah, the Japanese government did a good job educating them.
Knowledgable HRC people say the last built RC166's were putting out close to 70hp. That doesn't sound astounding by todays standards but remember the HP back then for a CL72(250cc) Street Scrambler was 25hp and a BSA A65 Hornet(650cc) was around 54hp. Such an awesome sounding engine. If you put a modern EFI, Valvetrain(titanium) Ignition system, etc. on this same engine, I believe 100hp is attainable. I priced one of those Keihin Racing Carbs years back and they were something like 300 bucks a piece. Probably one reason DT engine builders were using Mikunis back in the day. Even though these small multi-cylinder engines could turn 18,000+rpm their powerband was quite narrow; that's why you saw 7 speed and more gearboxes. I believe one of Honda's little RC 50cc GP bikes had a 9 speed box. Honda built some amazing stuff back in the 60's and the company wasn't even 20 yrs old ...
I can't remember if it was but it might be Peter Wright who stated in some papers that the theoretical limit of any cylinder config of this size would be around 80hp for a 4 stroke. And that theoretical limit wasn't attained even in the golden era of NA f1 v12's and v10's. I don't doubt that 70hp figure though.. these bikes are so cool!
Steve Matz: (nice avatar, Mike Mentzer - that man totally changed the way I trained in the early 90's... leading me to a national championship. RIP Mike) as for your comment, sounds like "racer speak" to me, the exaggeration of bench racers. In the 60's no 4 stroke engines were putting out that power, works out to 280 hp per liter. Some 50 years later, BMW F1 engines were turning similar rpms, 19K+, and putting out 300 hp per liter naturally aspirated ... .and in the 60's F1 motors were around 100 hp per liter. Even the Honda F1 motors of 1990 were only 190 hp per liter. I doubt the RC166 put out over 150 hp / liter = ~37 hp ... which would have been very impressive for a 4 stroke motor of that size, and probably had a very WIDE powerband, like 10,000rpm LOL!!! .. it had 6 cylinders, but was only 250cc total!
Your title is wrong. This bike is a Honda RC165 (why put RC166 in brackets!?). Engine capacity of this bike is just over 247cc. Last time I saw this bike it had suffered a dropped valve on an Isle of Man parade lap whilst being ridden by Steve Plater. Most likely cause of the dropped valve was by it being brutally over-revved a couple of days previously to 19,000 whilst static at Jurby airfield (its there for all to see on another RU-vid video) by Team Obsolete rider Dave Roper. Max power is at 18.,000 so why on EARTH would run it up to 19,000 when warming it up from cold!?
Remember the sound from somewhere in the mid/late '60's with Mike Hailwood at the Ulster Grand Prix. Jim Redman could have been there too, or slightly later. Used to specifically stand at the heel end of Leathemstown corner so the exhausts would be blowing the sound right into my face - and the Honda 6 was the absolute best. Jim Redman isn't giving it full revs here, but who can blame him. It's a damn near priceless artifact of bike history. P.S. Cannot get my head around the new GP 250 class with single cylinders - and this sound tells you why!.
Mike Hailwood only rode the RC165 once in a race and that was at Suzuka. Isamu Kasuya came second on another one. He had huge success on the RC166 and RC174 sixes.
If I remember correctly, Dunlop recorded Hailwood on the 'six' on the then 'triangular' tyres at 59 degrees off the vertical, not very far short of today's angles nearly 50 years later.
I heard closer Hailwood passed me at the Roy Hesketh circuit in 1967, the bike went away from seemingly silently, then a wall of sound hit me, incredible.
tried explaining the sound that comes out of these to a bloke at work,he couldnt accept that something could sound better than his obnoxiously loud,shit sounding V ROD
This could very well be the bike that came and raced at Mondello Park in Ireland in the very late sixties.It was riddden by Mike,s team mate the man from Belfast Ralph Bryans and still brings back memories even today.I am nearly sure of these facts but can be corrected,maybe Ralph can verify this himself i think he raced against Tommy Robb that same day.Regards
The first time I went to Aberdare, Bob Heath was riding his Honda 6. I parked a good half mile away near the town centre not knowing where the park circuit was until I heard Bob start it up. What a noise! I thought to myself, "god help the good people of Cardiff" 20 miles away down the valley. Cadwell is not dissimilar with the noise being contained in the valley until you get up onto the back "straight" . Then god help the good people of Lincoln.
Nothing like a true race in anger screaming around the tt at full bore up and Down the box like billy o, and standing it up on the gearbox sprocket at a million revs, pure music.
