the team's project - renamed the nrs 588 - did win the 1992 isle of man tt, ridden by steve hislop, as well as north west 200 and ulster grand prix races ridden by robert dunlop. whilst in northern ireland, the team met professor gordon blair, one of the foremost automotive engineers from queen's university belfast. prof blair commented that the japanese had abandoned development of the motorcycle variant of the wankel engine on two main counts: 1. as the team had realised, there was just too much heat to be confined in a motorcycle chassis. 2. the pollution created by the engine burning both oil for lubrication and fuel for power was just too great to meet the impending pollution regulations without a large and expensive exhaust scrubbing system. in his tv series on british industry, sir john harvey-jones commented that the company was governed more by heart than head and the racing team were the only ones worth saving.