Honda Racing Corporation (HRC) was established as a subsidiary to focus on motorcycle racing operations in September 1982. Earlier in April, Honda launched NS500 equipped with a 2-stroke engine into the highest category of the road race world championship.

It was Takeo Fukui who played a role as the large project leader (LPL) in charge of the development and racing operations of the NS500. Fukui was a chief engineer at Honda R&D Co., Ltd. back in those days and would serve as the president of Honda Motor Co., Ltd. from June 2003 to June 2009. He was also assigned to the LPL handling NR500, a 4-stroke racer when Honda made a comeback to the World Grand Prix in August 1979.

NR500 was an innovative racer with a 4-stroke V4 engine featuring oval cylinders/pistons and 8 valves per cylinder. However during the first seasons, NR500's performance showed how its technical maturity was rough around the edges.

Although the development engineers were quite confident on catching up with 2-strokes in 2 to 3 years, the top management could not afford to wait that long. Honda decided to give up on the NR500 when it had entered only 8 races in the World Grand Prix. Their significant shift in strategy was to develop a 2-stroke racer to get fast results. That was NS500.

There were some engineers who lashed out at Fukui, "Why do we have to give up on NR500 at this point? I hate that Take Zuppo Two (2-stroke engine with bamboo tubes) !" However it was Fukui who felt more disappointed at the switch from NR to NS than anybody else because the LPL devoted himself to NR500 from the beginning of the project.

In June 2009, Fukui retired from his position as the president of Honda Motor Co., Ltd. after his 6-year term. 3 months later, in an interview given to the RACERS magazine, Fukui talked about the days he was struggling to approach the very pinnacle of motorcycle racing. Having taken the load off his shoulders, he recaptured the early '80s with a relaxing look on his face.

"NR500 debuted in 1979. Since then however, we have had almost no results. In 1980 and 1981, still no points. Of course its unique 4-stroke engine was one thing. Other than that, chassis, suspension, brakes and such, we had yet more to learn to reach the level where we could contend for a win. No matter how much we tried to improve performance in every part, no results were achieved. Our staff at the races couldn't put up with it any longer. NR500 might be victorious someday, but everyone knew it would take so long with difficulties."

"Then came Mr. Miyakoshi (Shinichi Miyakoshi, chief engineer at Honda R&D Co., Ltd.), who was my boss and leading Honda factory motocross team at the time. He brought up the concept of a 2-stroke 3-cylinder engine. It was considered something positive, but we did not set his plan into motion until Mr. Yoshino (Hiroyuki Yoshino, the director of Honda R&D Co., Ltd. Asaka R&D Center in 1981, 5th president of Honda Motor Co., Ltd. in later years) organized a group."

"His decision was to develop the NS 2-stroke in the existing NR 4-stroke team. If a new team developing NS had been established, it would not have worked out well. Instead Mr. Yoshino told me who was the LPL for NR to deal with NS also, which meant our team had double duty; developing the NS while racing the NR."