P104
CN
III TRACKSIDE
BY MICHAEL SCOTT
R
ace engineering is to
a large extent a matter
of fashion. Or to put it
another way (as former world
champion and revered crew
chief to Kenny Roberts Sr. Kel
Carruthers told me many years
ago) "what worked last year, plus
a few percent."
In this way, in the years of
those amazing unrideable 500cc
two-strokes, everyone ended up
with a V4 engine. Everyone up
front, anyway.
In modern MotoGP, some
of it is written in stone anyway.
Four is how many cylinders you
have, 81mm is the widest the
cylinder bore can be. With these
restrictions it was goodbye to
the marvelous sound of Honda's
old 990cc V5 and Aprilia's
raucous in-line triple. But it's a
little surprising that there is still
some variety in the engines on
the grid.
Not a huge amount, but with
six different bikes, four are V4s,
but not identical, while two are
straight fours.
Honda and Ducati have
90-degree V4s, Aprilia's has
angle of 75 degrees, while the
KTMs seem to be somewhere
between the two.
Yamaha and Suzuki run in-line
KTM –DOING IT THEIR OWN WAY
