Factory Fugitive

Against all odds, this HRC RC45 was saved from the crusher and ended up in the hands of PB reader Mick Loughlin, who ensures this Suzuka exotica still gets a pasting.

- Rupert Paul

IT’S NOT A very nice thing to say, but this bike belongs in a crusher. A full factory Honda RC45, it was one of a pair built for Shinichi Itoh and Alex Barros to race in the 1999 Suzuka 8 Hour. And as is the tradition with Honda’s finest racing bikes, it was destined for post-race destruction. How it survived is a mystery; perhaps the fact that Itoh and Barros won the legendary event allowed it to be spirited out of HRC’s back door – and, by a roundabout route, into the grateful hands of RC45 nut Mick Loughlin.

For the avoidance of doubt, Mick loves RC45s. “It started after seeing and hearing the factory Rothmans RVFs ridden by Sarron and Igoa at the 1984/85 Le Mans 24hr. Then the RC30s, when half the grid were on them. And again at Le Mans in 2000, when I was helping a team and there was a very trick RC45 next to us in the pits. I was just hooked by the drone of the V4 race bikes at full chat.”

Mick already owned a World Superbike-spec RC45, the result of an eight-year (and counting) search for parts. Then, in late 2015, one of his spotters in Japan sent him a picture of a double-sided RC45 swingarm. “It turned out to be this bike, and the owner was going to put a single-sided swingarm on,” Mick says. “I asked if the whole thing was for sale, and he said yes. It was somewhere out in the sticks, so I paid my guy 750 dollars to go and look at it.

As soon as he confirmed what it was we struck a deal overnight. My wife Louisa lent me the cash.”