Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Derbi back 1 0racing As part of the campaign to r epo s it ion Der b i o n th e wo rld stage, th e Raba sa family has confirmed tha t, afte r a six-year a bsence frum the road racing scene, Derbi wi ll return to 125cc GP raci ng next yea r - exactly 10 yea rs since th e 1988 season , w hen it s "b a las ro jas" (" red bu llets") won b oth th e 125 cc a nd 80cc World Champ ionships in th e hand s o f Jorge Martinez "As pe r." Almos t inevitably, after his rece n t retire men t from Jorge Martinez won the t 988 125cc World GP racing, Aspar has been Championship on thi s Derbi . Now the Spaniard will nomi nated as manag~r of a mana ge Derbi's team in its return to Grand Prix rac ing. tea m w h ich will probably fea ture fo r me r wo r ks NSR250 Honda rider Emilio Alza rnora racing a new bike being d esigned by Dutch engi nee r Jan Thiel - creator of the Mina rell i/ Garelli tw ins that won eigh t 125cc world titles in the '70s a nd '80s. However, in view of th e sho rt tim e scale, it's possible that Derbi 's retu rn to GP racing w ill be postponed un til 1999, to give Thie l time to develop race-winning power from the new rotary-valve motor - either that, or it wi ll lease eng ines fro m Aprilia as a qui ck fix for on e season, which wou ld also allow chassis d evelopmen t to be ca rri ed ou t on the new bike. Ho wever, what's certa in is th at Derbi, the w inner of nin e GP World titles and o ne of th e legendary names of small-ca pacity road racing, are returning to th e gri ds very soo n with a new "Red POW~T" con tender. potentia l value of their m a r qu e ' s n a m e , resul ting in their d eal with Derbi. Now, the Rabasa family (th e owners of Derbi) h a ve a nnounced an ag reement with th eir friends, the Bultos. They will now "acquire the .exclu sive worldwide rig hts to the Bullaco na me fo r comm e rcial purposes," indiea ting a t the sa me time th a t they will " use th e Bu lta co n am e o n s p o r ti n g m ot orcycl es at th e upper e nd of th e marke t, targe ti ng tru e e n th u s ias ts of hyperspo rt moto rcycles." Ho we ver , in th e Spanish m arket d om inated b y s ma ll-ca p a ci ty tw o st ro kes, which fo rm De rbi's e ntire prod uc t io n - e very t h ing is rel a tiv e. The first mod el tha t Derbi has anno unce d w ill carry -the Bullaco name a nd will enter producti on in the sp ring of '98 is the Lobito - an aggress ive ly s tyled , sixspeed , liquid -cooled , two-strok e street enduro bike, with a lu m in iu m fram e a n d exte nsive ca rbo n- fibe r hardware, p o we r ed b y 5 0c c and 80cc Derb i motors. Further do wn th e roa d , a ran ge of Bu ltaco scoo te rs w it h s por ting styling is planned - but true Bull aco fan s w ill be ho pi ng for a bo rn -ag ai n vers io n. of the T T -wi n ning M e trall a 250 two-s trok e si ng le, which was th e fi rs t tw o-stro ke s po r ts bike of th e modern e ra . Derbi boss Andreu Rabasa says he d o esn 't r ul e o u t n e g o t ia ti n g a li n k with Teissier to market his trials h ike und er the Bultaco name, p rovided it's properly des ign ed an d well-made. So, just a s Seifert and th e Aquili ni family a re tal kin g terms ove r No rton, in a n uncannil y si mila r scena rio, Teissier r-, a nd th e Rabasa family are concocting a 0\ simil a r link ove r Bulta co. Di d some 0\ ...... scri p tw ri te r sell th e sa me screenplay rr) twice? .... Cli .c E Cli u Cli c 6 S urvivors Derbi w as th e o n ly o ne o f the "Fou r Mu sketeers" of Barcelona-based Spa nish marqut:$ • Bultacu, Derbi, Montesa (now owned by Honda), an d Ossa - to s u r v i ve Spain' s tra n si tio n into t h e p os t-Franco free- ma r ket e ra intact , still in dependen t in an age when Spanis h m arqu e s w e r e n o longer protected from outside co m petitio n by ta ri ff barrie rs and import res t rictions. Thanks to th e astu te ma nage me n t .o f the Rabasas a nd th eir m anag in g di recto r, Iose p M. Pu ig (no relati on to the 500cc GP rider of th e same name), Derbi has nut onl y s u rv iv ed , bu t prospered thr ou g h a co m b in a t io n of overseas ex pa nsion a nd stra teg ic agreemen ts. Th u s , while con tinu ing to concentrate o n volume p rod uc tio n of smallcapacity scooters an d m o torcycles {or th e Spani s h home ma rke t, Der bi too k care of bi g-bike sales by forging lin ks wit h Kawa sak i, fo r w ho m they ' v e b een th e S pa nis h impo rter fo r m or e MuZ10 tackle 500ccGPs Another famous name returning to GP racing next season is Germany's MuZ, which, u nder its East German Communist MZ tag. wa s a leading contender in 125/250 /35Occ GP racing for a quartercentury until the early '80s. In fact, it was MZ's brillia nt chief engineer , the late Walter Kaad en , who invented the modern GP tw o-st ro ke engine, which was the n exported to Japan via the defection fro m the Eastern bloc of MZ's rider / en ginee r Ernst Degn er . MuZ has done Bu t thi s ti m e, MuZ is m o vin g up a well in class. II w ill swap the si ngle-cylinde r Supennono fo u r -s tro ke Superrno no ca tegory • in rac ing wit h its which their RennS korpion racers finis hed RennSko rplon third in the '96 Euro pea n Championship racers. Now It (ru n al ong si d e the World Su per bike hope s to carry series) and second in '97 - for an entry in tha t success th e b lue-r ibboned 1998 500cc GP class to 500cc wit h a V-tour contender pa inted in their Grand Prix trad itional green -and-s ilver colors. racing, using However, this b ike is non e ot he r tha n the Swissauto th e ROC-fram ed Elf 500 wi th u ltraco mengine. pact Swissa u to engine d erived fro m th e Sw iss eng ine specialist 's World- title-win· ning sidecar m otor, which has been raced for the past two seasons without cons picu ou s success by Spa nia rd Jua n Borja a nd , in 1997, by German rider jur gen Fuchs. Now, ho wever, wi th Elf team owner Mic hel Metrau x - Elf's Swiss impor ter an d cha irma n of the IRTA GP team's cartel- having decided to bow out uf the picture, Swissauto boss Urs Wenger explains how MuZ's involvement carne about. "Whe n Metraux told us h e wouldn ' t be con ti nuing i n 1998," he says; "we looked around fur another partner - and si nce we were a lr ea dy in contact with MuZ about a separate project, we made them a prop osa l whi ch they duly accepted . We'll run a one-bike tea m in GPs next season (pe rhaps su rp risingly, not wi th their Germa n rider, Fuchs, but with Doriano Romboni as the likely rider... Edi tor), but will have a separate test tea m with a seco nd rider working on some new developme nts we ha ve up our sleeves." Serge Rosser of ROC will apparen tly con tinue to run the tea m and take care o{ the cha ssis side, wi th Mu Z's Malaysian owners Hong Leong - whose boss , Ron lim, is a dieh ard race fan - underwriting the costs , and MuZ direct or Petr-Karel Korou s in overall control of the project. "We' re no t go ing into this project ligh tly," says Korous , "because we're using it as a means of promoti ng MuZ's engineering expertise aro und the wo rld . We belie ve we can be compe titive by refining the exis ting eng ine, and intend to be a credible force in 500cc GP racing in the next two years." In whi ch case, the bets are on as to which of the two Malaysia n-backed teams now running Euro pean-built bikes in 500cc GP racin g - either the MuZ, or Kenn y Roberts' Modenas KR3 - will be the first to make it to the rost rum.

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