xander,
I think you're missing something. The Honda engine did indeed start with nothing. They had cleaned up in the 60's racing a 250cc 6-cylinder inline four stroke motorcyle. They took a hiatus from racing and when they decided to get back into it, two stroke engines had become the standard fare. Honda said "well, we'll just see about that" and developed a 500cc v-four four stroke engine which spun at 24,000 rpm (or so). It had oval cylinders with four each intake and exhaust valves, two spark plugs, and the pistons had two connecting rods each.
Four cylinders was the limit and Honda had what was effectively an eight cylinder engine. I remember at the time that one of the tuners or so was asked a question at a press conference regarding one of the cylinder-pair banks, and he sought clarification by asking "which four?".
I bought a new model motocycle with an untested engine design because it was basically based on that endeavor. That was the V45 Sabre. I didn't like the way the head would start to shake at about 130mph, nor the final drive or ergonomics of the layout. When they again pushed the limits of the rules the next year by making a purpose-built race bike, the Interceptor, I traded for it even though I thought it was ugly; but it had all the changes made exactly as I'd envisioned they should be.
Glen
