BACK in the late 1990s the closest you’d get to experiencing the violence of a MotoGP bike was on this PC game Microprose GP500.
In pursuit of realism, it was next to impossible to complete a lap at racing speeds, which probably didn’t do much for the game’s sales. But it did have the whole 1998 500cc field to choose from, and our favourite was always the Honda NSR500V of Jurgen van den Goorbergh, as seen in this clip. True to reality, it wasn’t as quick as the four-cylinder 500s, but it was fractionally less likely to flick you into the gravel at the first hint of a corner.
Now there’s the chance to discover just how close it was to reality by buying an actual ex-van den Goorbergh NSR500V, the twin-cylinder machine fielded by HRC as an alternative to the usual four-cylinder NSR. Okay, so this one, listed on eBay, is a 2001 model, with the double-sided swing-arm instead of the original’s single-sider. It still looks the part, with the bright orange Rizla+ paint scheme of the one in the game. Check out our gallery of pictures below and the eBay ad here.
Listed by Craigs Honda in Shipley at £85K, it's a bit more expensive than the computer game. Then again, Honda's forthcoming RC213V-S (if it ever is forthcoming) is expected to cost about £100k, and that's not even a real GP bike.
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