Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

1998 Ducati 996 World Superbike R E E AC RT ST Specifications . En g in e Liquid-cooled DOHC 90-degree V-twin four-stroke w/four valves per cylinder and toothed-belt ca mshaft drive Bo re x s t roke 98 x 66mm 996cc Displa ceme nt 172 bhp at O utpu t 11.300 rpm (at wheelJ Compres s ion rati o 12.0:1 Weber- Marell! Fuel /ignit io n syst e m (Left) Troy Corser a nd PierFrancesco Chili opt for different swingarms, based on preference. Ch ili prefers the 10mm-shorter o ld style, wh ile Corser likes the stability of the electronic fuel-inject ion and engine·management system , with two 60mm throttle bodies . three injectors and separate map per cylinder S-speed w I Marelli power-shifter C lutc h Multiplate dry slipper clutch (10 steel/ 9 sintered bronze) Chas s is Chrome-moly tubularsteel space frame S USPENS IO N ,46mm Ohli ns invert ed fork Front Transmission new, longer arm . (Right) The team had some tr ouble with the new-style Bre mbos that use four individual pads per ca lipe r. h a bi t o f a r a cing li fe t im e , I'll a d m it u sing th e b ac k bra ke ha rd at th e same time you squeezed th e front does settle th e Duca ti better. But it d oesn 't s top it fro m feeli ng distinctly twit chy as you la y it in to th e turn, w hich pretty much ru led out tra il-b ra kin g . The b est pl a n is to get the bike slo wed down in advance, though o n th e m ore agile Ch ili b ik e w hich h ad mo re res ponsive h andling and w ha t felt lik e a m o re power fu l a n d ea g e r-re vvin g engine - the to tal p acka g e helped me la p a w ho le two s e co n d s fas te r o n it th a n o n Corser's bike. M a ybe on e fa c t o r was the highe r d omed C h ili scree n,.-developed in the Fe r rari w ind tu n n e l and pe rmi tt e d u n d er SBK reg s, tha t a llo ws y ou to tu ck you r h elm et behi nd it much bette r in a s tr aigh t li ne than o n a stock 916, fo r b e tter aerodyna m ic p ene t r atio n . It may h a ve helped C hili cl ock th at m ag ic 193mph trap time a t M onza last season. But C h ili is n ow ou t th e d oor, according to Duca ti m a n ag e m ent - th e Ita lia n com p a ny dropped h im from its 1999 p la n s in favo r of a two-man tea m run o u t o f the factory that in clud ed Corser and Foga rty. Fo r C orser, th is com es as good ne w s, especia lly as h e'll b e linking o nce again wit h th e m an w ho'll be runni ng the tea m - the man who took him to th e '96 World title, Da v id e Tardozzi. "Ou r la ck of t e s tin g was a m a jor prob lem last season," says Corser. "The excuse fr om Fed eric o M in o li (D ucati's Rear . , .Cast-rnaqnesium swingarm pivot ing in crankcases and frame. w/nsinq-rate linkage and Ohli ns shock mana ging d irecto r) when I p u shed h im a bout it w as that w ith three w orks riders to keep in equipment, they o n ly ha d enoug h -p a r ts for ra ces , n o t testi n g a s well. M in oli sa id ra cin g w a s cos t ing Duca ti so much that if they ha d to spen d a ny m ore, th ey wouldn' t keep raci n g . I said to him, 'A re y o u racing to w in o r just raci ng to com pete?' W ell, it looks like th e y ' v e m ad e t h a t d ecisio n , a n d though it wou ld be n ice to h a ve a li ttl e more to p a n d t h e casse tte gea r box, I reckon th e Ducati will be very h ard to beat in 1999. We've got the ch assis h a ndling well a t last and the m otor is v e ry good - w e've got th e p o w er th e re, n ow. It' s a good p ackag e." . Amen to that. l~ Desma details: inside the Ducati 996 T 00 0\ 0\ ,..... N l-< (l) ..n S (l) u (l) a 22 o regain its coveted World Supcrbikc crown, Ducati concocted a maj or evolu tio n of the bas ic 916 de sign , no w clocking up its fifth year in con tention and , in 996cc (98 x 66mm) guise as for the past two seas ons , now at the twin-cylinde r limit for the class. Duca ti st a rted th e year wit h so me m ajor engi ne im p ro vements aim ed a t ad d ressing riders' cr iticis ms about the ab ru pt power delivery of the '97 bike, which was in tum upsetting the ha ndli ng. The improvements includ ed a new F1 Ferr ari-based Marelli MF3s ECU contr olling the fuel- in jectio n and eng ine-management syste ms whic h . apa rt from grea ter sophisticatio n and capaci ty, also a llows a ll th e engine con tro l data to he accessed and fi ne- tu n ed d irectl y by p lu gg in g in a co mp u te r - a n improvement over havi ng to switch EPRO M chips . In addition, it also a llows the rid er to sw itch between two d ifferent on-boa rd fuel-inject ion maps, as well as incorporating the power-shift ercontro l system and full eng ine teleme try. A lso , a th ir d injector was ad de d to th e works eng ines ' Weber -Marcll i EA , with the two already located conventionally beneath the throttle butterfly joined by a third po sitioned externally at the end of the intake trumpet, all feed ing a 60mm thr ottle bod y. The third in jector only comes in to opera tion at high rpm, w hich allows the more po werful engine tu deliver its 172 hp (up from 165) mor e p rogressively, a t lower rev s. Winter developmen t had also p rod uced a revised airbox design with altered du cti ng, aimed a t de liver in g a colder, d ense r cha rge to th e red esigned combus tion chamber, with a new rad iator for added cooling capacity . Then, at the Kyalami round in Sou th A frica mid season ,' a su bstantially diffe rent package mad e its debut. This had been held back pend ing homologa tion w ith the short-ru n 996 SPS mod el line , incor pora ting a bigger ai rbox w hich required the cross brace of the spaceframe chassis to be altered to mak e room , and an altered en gine spec. This revised engi ne embodies several major changes, so that compared to lost year's bike, there is a new cams haft, titanium connecting rod , cranksha ft and piston design s. the latter wit h a sho rter skirt and 1mm -sma ller wris t pin. Bot the biggest change is in s id e th e re-p o rted cy li n de r head s, wh ich w ith 39 mm inlet / 32mm exha ust valves used instead of the 37/ 31mm ones Rake/t rail 23 .5-24.5°/98 -109mm 55 .7-56.1 in. Wh e elba s e Weight . ..352 pounds (wet. no fuel tankl 53/4 7% Weight di st (w/ longer swi nqarrn) BRAKES Front .. . . .Dual 320mm Bre mbo cast -st ainless-st eel disc s w/ four-piston Bre mbo calipers .S ingle 200mm Brembo Rea r .. ste el disc w /two-piston Brembo caliper WHEELSITIRES Front 12/61 -17 Miche lin radial on 3 .S0·in.-wide M archesini wheel Rear 18/67-17 Miche lin radial on 5.75-in.-wide Marchesini whee l Top speed 193 mph (Monza) 1998 Year of construction Owner .Duca t! Motor S pA Bologna. Italy from '97, require a six-degree- fla tter valve an gle to prevent the "Using th e 16-incher in practice at Mon za, for example, ' it va lve seats fro m overl a pping , as we ll as affecting the sq uis h was great in the chicanes because of th e' reduced mas s and extra ba nd . Said valv es are of a co m pos ite d esign, w ith it ti ta niu m con tact patch, but no good throug h th e fast sw eepe rs," said Corser. "It feels so far awa y, an d you don 't get an y feedba ck on outer shell to red uce weight and inertia, com bined with it hard steel inne r to give ad ded resistance to wea r at the rocker-arm w hat the tire's doing. Plus, wh en you drop the forks throu gh the clamps to regain the correc t ride height, then it upsets all the interface poin t. rest of the geo metry." However, at Asse n and beyond , sha rp-eyed observers reckAt the rear, a slightly lighter, lOmm-longer version of the castoned that the otto m imic su perbike fea tured the same dec ked cylinder head s as on the ST4 spo rt tourer, to allow the eng ine to magn esium sing le-sid ed swingarm was introduced to help get be positioned as for forward in the fram e as possible wi tho u t mor e weigh t on the front wheel. Though all three rid ers perfouling the front wheel u nder braki ng . This had been tried some formed mor e test with the Italian -made Double System air shock s yea rs ago for the same reason, including on the Supermono, but us ed occasio na lly by Joh n Kocin ski two years ago, all raced a ppears to have b e n revived here on the eto tuzi one version of e th roughout the year from Monza on with Ohlins' new so-called the V-twi n racer . "do uble-tube" TT4 rear shock, which has a wider range of ad justOff-season tests with a new fra me construction usin g thin - ment a nd uses a lot of Form ula One car techn ology in its design. However, a trick tire more often used than the 16-inch front w all tu bing to promot e con tro lled flex seems to resolve the chass is problems ema nating from too stiff a fram e in '97, with Michelin wa s the 16.5-inch rear, fo r reasons Co rser exp lai ns: th e engine mov ed 4mm fu rt her forw ard in the wh eel base to "Firstly, I've got to say Ducati should do the same as Honda and load up th e front end and coun ter the power understeer th: junk the single-sided swi nga rm, because whe n the chain stre tches Foga rt y in pa rti cular co mp lained about. Thi s broug ht abou t or you alter the gea ring and then rotate the axle eccentric to comfront-wh eel clea ra nce problems un der braking; hence the short - pensa te, it cha nges all the ride-heigh t and suspens ion settings as er cylinde r heads appa rent ly used later. well, which it' s a real head ache to get arou nd - and all for no reaThe engi ne also now sits lower in the fra me since Kyalam i, son . We're not goi ng end uran ce racing here. But making the right thanks to moving the rea r bracing tu be back and d own, lowercall on whether to use a 16.5-inch rear or a 17-inch is a rea l gaming the center of gra vity to make qui ck directional cha nges c asi- ble - not because of geometry, which has nothing to do with it, cr . but tire wear. The 16 has better side grip, but a shorte r tire life, Suspension is all new, with the latest ultra-trick (and ultra- beca use being stiffer, the carcass moves abo ut less, so the wear costly: $12,000 a setl) 46mm O hlins upsid e-d own forks wit h forces work them selves out thro ugh the tread rather than the conmagn esium slid ers as used on Yamah a's YZRSOO, wh ich ha ve stru ction. At Brands Hatch, I used a 16.5-incher in the first race, 5mm more travel than before for improved comp liance, a wider was comfortably in the lead - and then the tire went off big-time. range of ad jus tme nt (so mu ch so that Chili and Foga rty preDisaster! For the second race, we fitted a 17-inch with exactly the ferred the old er forks for the early par t of the season whil e they same compound a nd construc tion and won easily, plus ran the tried to get the new ones dialed in) and extended upper shroud s same time from first lap to last. It's often a gamb le." s for the s tanchions, for extra rigidity. Tha t lit tle ep isode illustrates to perfection the fine edge in Ad justa b le tr ipl e clam ps d eliver ing be twe en 25m m and setu p and deve lopment that World Sup erbike has now attained . 31mm of offse t provid e trail settings varyi ng fro m 109mm to Neve rtheless, in its fifth season of ra cing , the Ducati continues 98mm, with the stock variation in head angle be tween 23.5 and to be the bike to beat. It may not be the fas test o r the most pow24.5 degrees. . erful, and it's certainly no longer the ligh test , but in 1998, Ducati These new fork s also allow the use of a 16-inch fron t Miche- engineers red iscovered the desm o V-twin's trump card: It's the lin, which all three riders ha ve tested, but which on ly Corser best all-arounder, the most ridable pa ckage in the Superbike and Chili ,think are wo rthw hile - if not ide al eno ug h to be raced paddock, the su bject of continuous refinement on a year -rou nd yet. bas is. Class tells.

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