When Yamaha design guru Kunihiko Miwa was told to create a radically new sports bike, he was given a clean sheet of paper and a brief that comprised just two words -- "no compromise".

It had been the idea of Mario Inumaru, the senior product planner at Yamaha and the man responsible for the whole European market. His vision was to rejuvenate the race-bred supersport class in the mid 90s.

The planners in Yamaha Motor Europe's office in Amsterdam were more than happy to have their engineering team in Japan, led by Miwa San, explore the possibilities.

So birth was given to the Yamaha "R" superbike series -- and it sparked a design revolution that was to re-shape sports bikes from just about every manufacturer.

Kunihiko had roughed out a design for a new four-cylinder engine, and he wanted to integrate its chassis and engine into one unit to make this bike the lightest and most compact in its class.

The final concept was four-fold -- an ultra-short four-cylinder engine with a triangular crankshaft and gearbox shaft layout, a Deltabox II chassis with the slant-block engine as stressed member to ensure high rigidity and low weight, ultra-long swingarm combined with a short wheelbase for superb handling together with excellent stability, and, lastly, positioning the rider to ensure best weight distribution.

First, of course, to roll out of the factory was the flagship -- the R1.

Then came the R6 -- a gutsy middleweight.

You may think they were pretty much the same, one just a smaller version of the other. Not so.

Kunihiko said: "If you want to build a perfect Supersport machine, you cannot make compromises.

"A 600 cc machine has to have a different character to a 1000cc bike.

"Naturally, weight, physical size and engine character will be different. If you try to use the 1000 chassis, for example, you would automatically weaken certain advantages of a 600cc.

"The R1 and R6 have quite different characters. Both development teams worked independently and tried to make the best supersport machine in the category."

And now I can attest to this.

The 167.5 kg dry weight R6, improved this year with a re-designed rear end and lighter pistons and con-rods, is a thrilling, rev-hungry master of the twisties.

That lightweight GP-type Deltabox aluminium chassis, with it's ultra-short 1380mm wheelbase, is as close as you can get to handling perfection.

Using the standard factory settings on the fully-adjustable, flex-resistant 43mm front forks and the piggyback Bilstein-type mono-shock, cornering at speed is the closest feeling yet to riding a moto-cross berm.

The R6 is capable of amazing corner speed. Dive towards a tight corner, tap the dual 298mm front discs gripped by lightweight one-piece four-piston calipers, and the bike will readily flip onto its side and just stick.

But you have to keep the revs singing on the 16-valved, DOHC, four cyclinder engine, if you aim to exit with speed.

In the search for the 120bhp on tap, nothing much happens on the power front until the tacho needle begins to pass the 9,000rpm mark. Mind you, there is a little leaway, because if you keep the 37mm flat-slide carburettors sucking from the ram-air duct, the red line does not interupt proceedings until well into the 14,500s. By that stage you are begining to fly.

Yamaha, with the mastery of Miwa San, built this bike with an eye firmly on the World Supersort race series and racing in general.

It is a fact underlined by the re-designed rear end of the 2001 R6. Arrive at a track day, undo four screws and the whole number-plate and indicator unit just drops away.

What's left is a race tail, complete with moulded undertray.

It is a bike with racing in its blood -- it only comes alive when it is pushed hard.