A Honda RC213V-S, still in its packing crate and showing one mile on the odometer has just set the record for a Honda at auction. The price? If you have to ask, you can't afford it!

The most expensive Honda ever sold at auction

A new record for the most expensive Japanese bike sold at auction has just been set when an as-new Honda RC213V-S sold for, wait for it, $247,000, $68,000 more than its pre-sale estimate!

The model, which was launched in 2015, was marketed as a MotoGP bike for the road. Weighing in at a featherweight 160kg and with an engine capable of putting out 215bhp with the included race kit fitted, it was the ultimate road-going Honda. The race kit comprises a race ECU, full titanium exhaust system, race-pattern quick shifter and a data logger.

The 2016 example on auction was still in its original shipping crate and has never been removed or ridden. The odometer shows just one mile.

Now, depending on your outlook, a bike in this condition is either drool-worthy or a waste of a good machine. Bikes are built to be ridden and to not be reduces them to mere ornaments. This particular example will probably never turn a wheel in anger, nor will the engine likely ever turn over. But that is the prerogative of the new owner: doesn't mean I have to agree!

I'm not sure if this record includes genuine HRC racing machinery, such as the incredible 1960s multi-cylinder 50cc, 250cc and 350cc bikes as ridden by the likes of Mike Hailwood and Jim Redman. I suspect not as any of those bikes would surely top the $1million mark. But for a road bike, a quarter of a million dollars is still not insignificant.