P102
CN
III IN THE PADDOCK
BY MICHAEL SCOTT
N
ewspaper magnate Lord
Beaverbrook was recruit-
ed by Winston Churchill
for a crucial job during World
War II—to supervise aircraft pro-
duction. He hustled through the
production of more than 22,000
Spitfire fighters, which played a
crucial role in winning the Battle
of Britain.
On his office wall, the motto:
"Organization Is The Enemy Of
Improvisation."
Grand prix bikes are peace-
time fighter planes. Organization
is represented by the technical
regulations. Today, these fill a
rulebook running to more than
300 close-typed pages and cov-
ering every aspect, from engine
design, dimensions and materi-
als to the bike's passage through
the air.
Much more is banned than
allowed.
For the most successful de-
signers, the rulebook has always
inspired the creative juices. It's
not quite the same as free think-
ing and true innovation. But it's
the closest we have to it, and
there is an important principle
involved.
It is not the letter of the law
that matters, but the gaps be-
tween the words.
Regs are not to be obeyed,
but circumvented.
Years of to and fro between
engineers and regulators mean
that many loopholes have been
closed. Specific materials, tech-
niques, designs and opportuni-
ties are banned.
In motorsport, the greater
complexity of four wheels allows
much more scope: the best
example being ground-effect
aerodynamics and the Brabham
fan-car of 1978. This F1 racer
had a huge extractor fan mount-
ed at the rear. Nominally it was
for cooling, but the more signifi-
cant purpose was to suck the
car down onto the road. It was
withdrawn after one race (which
it won by miles) for being just too
clever and too good.
In bikes, the innovations
are generally in the details.
Michelin's radial tires of the
1970s were one example. Soon
afterwards, in the late 1970s,
the 16-inch front wheel. Carbon
brakes and so-called "upside-
down forks" (in retrospect a
rather obvious improvement)
made the crossover from aircraft
in the 1980s.
Freedom in chassis design
allowed a number of variations,
including several attempts at
carbon-fiber (most recently by
Ducati) and the famous Suzuki
cardboard box, before the fabri-
RULES, DAMN RULES,
AND
REGULATIONS
Regs are not to be obeyed,
but circumvented.
