“Turbo” was the magic word in the early 1980s, as manufacturers struggled to salvage some vestige of performance from increased emissions regulations and the mediocre powerplants that resulted. The Turbo fad even spread to motorcycles, and the Japanese Big Four all experimented briefly with this form of forced induction. Honda tried the 1982-83 CX500 and CX650, Kawasaki the 1984-85 ZX750E1, Yamaha the 1982-83 XJ650LJ Seca, and Suzuki the rare XN85 (300 units in 1983).

The Honda CX500 and CX650 seem like an unlikely base for a performance bike. The CX500 was a 497 cc shaft-drive, water-cooled, cross-frame 80-degree V-twin developing 50 bhp and weighing in at 496 lbs. It is mostly remembered as the go-to choice of city messengers, a plugger that would run forever.

Turbochargers work best when applied to multi-cylinder engines with many small power impulses, so a pushrod V-twin seemed like a poor choice. Even so, Honda decided to make it a technological showcase. The two-inch turbocharger was built by IHI to spin at 200,000 rpm to boost the CX’s horsepower to 82 bhp at 8,000 rpm. Needless to say, the engine had to be considerably beefed up internally to survive this, and the installation was notably complex.

Other innovations included digital ignition, fuel injection, TRAC anti-dive front brakes, Pro-Link single-shock rear suspension and an enormous pearl white fairing with full instruments. In case you missed it, the word TURBO was impressed on the muffler in letters more than two inches high.

The CX500 Turbo was quite a fast tourer, with a top speed of 125 mph and an excellent fairing. At 600 lbs, though, it wasn’t that nippy with a quarter mile time of 12.5 seconds at 100 mph, and it was plagued with the chronic turbo lag characteristic of turbo motors at the time, which tended to deliver more power than you wanted and did so several seconds too late. That was a serious problem with a Porsche 930 in a corner, so imagine being leaned over on two wheels.

Honda pondered the problem, then gave it one more try in 1983 with the larger Honda CX650 Turbo. It developed 100 bhp, the turbo lag was much improved and the top speed rose to 135 mph. The bike was still infernally complicated and expensive, however, and there were other bikes out there that were both cheaper and faster, so that was the last year for the experiment.

The Turbo CX was launched right as the bottom dropped out of the bike market, and many lingered in warehouses. Only 2,833 Honda CX500 Turbos were built, followed by just 900 Honda CX650 Turbos. That $4,898 initial cost (however discounted) also meant that many were treasured. Good examples with relatively low miles can still be found, and would make an interesting addition to a collection. Just remember that most of the mechanics who worked on them when they were new have retired, and the specialized parts supply is likely to be challenging, to put it mildly.