Its various guises it’s been called the most perfect motorcycle ever made; the ideal balance between sportiness and comfort, practicality and fun; and a marvel of engineering that was years ahead of its time when it was launched in 1986.
Honda’s VFR750 has long since achieved iconic status here in the UK as well as around the world but the story nearly turned out very differently. If it hadn’t been for the determination of one man to race a bike, any bike, at the 1986 Transatlantic Match Races, you wouldn’t be reading this silver anniversary celebration today.
The then-annual race series pitted a team of American racers against a squad of Brits, with the winning side being that which scored most points over eight races on Easter weekend.
British rider Ron Haslam was contracted to race an Elf Honda in 500cc grands prix that year but, thanks to some behind-the-scenes political wrangling, found himself without a bike for the annual match race series. In what was a huge marketing gamble, Honda UK decided to let Haslam try his luck on their latest machine – the VFR750. According to Haslam, the gamble appeared to backfire straight away. “They supplied me with a tuned version of the VFR but in the first free practice the thing blew up so I was without a bike. I went straight to a local dealers, Granby Motors in Ilkeston, and just picked a VFR straight from the showroom floor, complete with sidestand, indicators, the lot. I took it to Donington and removed as much of the roadgoing equipment as I could, then fitted some tyres from a 250cc race bike because that’s all that would fit. Then I went out and raced.”
Haslam and the plain dark blue VFR, still retaining its pillion seat, were lined up against a grid of full-on racing Superbikes piloted by the likes of future world champions Kevin Schwantz and Fred Merkel. The potential for embarrassment was huge but the gods were on Haslam’s side: it rained and suddenly the playing field, if not quite levelled, at least wasn’t as precipitous as it had been.
“The VFR felt very slow – it wasn’t even meant to be a sportsbike – but when it rained during the first race it was perfect. I had just enough power that I could use it all and the ground clearance wasn’t as big a problem in the wet because we couldn’t lean over so far anyway.”
Haslam took full advantage of the wet conditions and stunned the paddock, and the wider motorcycling world, by putting the VFR on the podium. “I don’t think I would have gone so well in the dry because the Superbike riders would have been able to put all their power down. The second race was dry and I got away quite well in fourth of fifth place but I slowly dropped back down the field purely because I didn’t have the horsepower and I couldn’t make up for that with my riding because I had everything on the floor as it was, so I simply couldn’t corner any quicker.
“While it may have felt slow compared to a full-on Superbike, as a road bike that VFR was incredible. Even in the dry you could ride it so hard and on its limits, and it still felt really nice. It steered really well and was dead smooth under power. And I could get a good run out of the corners because I could use all the power while the other guys couldn’t. The handling, the grip, and the overall balance of the VFR, for a road bike, was just incredible. It was a great package.”
Without that podium, the VFR might well have survived for a few years as a modestly selling motorcycle before being replaced by something more sporty and track-focused like Suzuki’s GSX-R750, which had been released in 1985 and still set the benchmark for all the competition to aim at. But Haslam’s inspired ride worked miracles and before the week was out Honda UK’s entire allocation of VFRs had been sold. “Everyone knew it wasn’t a hoax or anything,” Haslam says. “It was a totally standard road bike. And that’s how it happened.”
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