The 10 Rarest Honda Motorcycles Ever Built – SlashGear

Honda introduced its VFR series of superbikes in the ’80s to an eager consumer base ready to buy up whatever could be built. While these new designs were showing up at dealers, Honda was busy dialing in machines on the track and using race experience to improve production models. However, for a select number of customers, Honda offered, in 1990, a bike that mirrored its track-winning bike in nearly every way, the Honda RC30.

The RC30, called VFR750R in Japan, was developed as a homologation special so Honda could build a new championship-winning race bike with a limited number offered to the public. It used the track-tested V4 engine setup with 748cc displacement and gear-driven camshafts (via Iconic Motorbike Auctions). With 118 horsepower and a dry weight of only 388 pounds, it was in the upper echelon of sport bikes for its day. On the exterior, a few things make the RC30 easily distinguished from regular production models — it came with round double headlights, a single seat, an unmistakable Honda livery in red, white, and blue, and the rear single swingarm, which made for easy wheel changes in the pits.

Honda exported only 316 units to the U.S. for a selling price of $15,000, which was about double the price of typical sport bikes (via Revzilla).

[Featured image by Rainmaker47 via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | CC BY-SA 3.0]