That’s it, it’s official, the world has gone race mad. With the addition of the new Kawasaki ZX-10RR, Suzuki GSX-R1000R and two Honda Fireblade SP options, almost every manufacturer now has an upgraded version of a superbike to offer to race hungry road riders –or racers who want added pep in their step. Ducati has been at this game for years, offering Sand Rversions of its superbikes. Aprilia, too, has always gone down the two bike route (even if the standard RSV4 isn’t available in the UK). MV has more models that you could shake a stick at, Yamaha has the electronically suspended R1M leaving only BMW with a lonely standard model now that the S 1000 RR has moved so close to the spec of the HP4 that the trick version was dropped – and even then you can spec the living be jesus out of a beemer to get it to special state deserving of a suffix. It’s like it’s the eighties and early nineties are back!

Back then, racing ruled the world and the adage of win Sunday, race Monday was almost true. But to get a bike to win, manufacturers often had to add illegal elements to a machine – then make it legal via the homologation process. Trick suspension, beefed upchassis parts, fancy lightweight material and breathed on engines –these were all game in the quest for race glory, and the added bonus for manufacturers were that the road-legal models made to homologate the race bikes were always highly desired and never stayed in the showroom for long – especially with racers wanting their obvious improvements.