Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Eurofile BY ALAN CATHCART More cylinders =more profit? One company quite probably. pleased with the promised resurgence of Grand Prix racing in its new four-stroke form must be London-based CVC Capital Partners, owners of Grand Prix promoting body Dorna for the past year since buying the Spanish company from Spain's big bank, Banco Santander. The leveraged-buyout specialist, formerlya subsidiary of Citibank but now independent, will be looking to enhance the value of its investment in Dorna prior to realizing some profit from it via a stock flotation and/ or a partial or outright sale, and the resurgence of interest on the part of corporate sponsors as well as spectators in Grand Prix racing once it switches to a four-stroke format will be a crucial element in achieving that goal. CVC Capital Partners hit the headlines on the London Stock Excllange on February 20, thanks to another sporting investment, when in partnership with Cinven, another firm of venture capitalists, they agreed to buy Britain's secondlargest chain of high-street bookmakers/betting shops, William Hill, from Japanese bank Nomura International, for 825 million pounds (about $1.35 billion). CVe's purchase of such a big firm of bookies, stacked alongside its handson control of Grand Prix racing via ownership of Dorna, begs the obvious question: Will we see on-course betting 'at motorcycle GP racing in future, rlst as in other sports such as football, soccer, horse racing - and, yes, Formula One car racing? Don't bet (ouch!) against it - in which case, the FIM's recent emphasis on increasing dope tests for riders in all branches of two-wheeled sport may take on a whole new significan.ce! Japanese money finances Hunwick Hallam Though out of the betting business at a handsome profit (it paid just 700 million pounds for William Hill 15 months ago), Nomura is in fact already involved in the motorcycle industry, through its commitment to underwriting the establishment of the Hunwick Hallam marque in Australia. Nomura has PJovided the finance to bankroll the development of three production models powered by the Aussie firm's avant-garde 90-degree V-twin engine, as well as the establishment of the HH factory in the shadow of Sydney's Olympics 2000 Stadium, where production will start in July of the range of bikes' due to be launched internation- Grand Prix fore-stroke Four-strokes are back in Grand Prix racing and set to return in 2001 thanks to a series of decisions made by the FIM's Grand Prix Commission at a meeting in Rome, Italy, on February 8. This meeting was also attended by key representatives from GP race promoters Dorna, race team alliance IRTA, and the GPMA manufacturers association which represents the constructors, who have the final say over any technical rule changes, and especially such a momentous one as the much-discussed decision to replace the premier SOOcc class, currently catering exclusively to two-strokes. According to sources very close to the commission, the momentous decision was definitively made at the Rome meeting to replace the present SOOcc category fron;\ the start of the 2001 season, with an Open-class 1000cc four-stroke class. At present, it's not envisaged that any two-strokes (or rotaries) will be allowed in Grand Prix racing's new premier class, even on a reduced-capacity basis. But there is strong evidence that one or more manufacturers currently involved in SOOcc GP racing, especially Yamaha, will be fighting a rearguard battle to allow the present breed of V-four two-strokes to continue to race in the new class, on some kind of equivalency basis.. At the same time, Aprilia .is understood to have been pushing for the new four-stroke category to feature either a 6S0cc top limit, or at the very least a 'differential formula similar to that currently applicable in the Superbike class - namely, l000cc twins, 900cc triples and a 7S0cc top limit for bikes with four or more cylinders. But the other parties to the agreement are said to have felt that this would leave Grand Prix racing as merely a prototype version of the World Superbike street-bike-based class, with the inevitable result that one of them would fall in the shadow of the other and eventually die through lack of interest by manufacturers and/or spectators. The decision was therefore made to go for a single 1000cc top limit, with no restriction on the number of cylinders that can be used, but with a differential weight formula that is in the process of being worked out by the FIM Technical Commission, before the new four-stroke-based formula can be officially announced. This formula is yet to be determined, but projected minimum weight limits are ] 20 kilograms (265 lbs.) for twincylinder bikes, 130 kilograms (286 lbs.) for triples, and 140 kilograms (309 lbs.) for anything with four or more cylinders though this is based on the exclusively four-stroke formula on which those parties at the Rome meeting agreed, and does not take into account any subsequent variation to the agreement that allows the continued admission of two-strokes. There will be no homologation requirements - this is Formula One on two wheels - nor any limitation on the number of cylinders, thus opening the way for five-, six- and even eightcylinder engine layouts. Now for the best part: no silencers! Yes, that's right - the new Formula One motorcycle class will follow its four-wheeled counterpart in completely eliminating all noise regulations, allowing open exhausts and unrestricted noise levels at all tracks - it'll be a condition of hosting a GP race meeting that the local noise police must be sent home for the weekend. . "What's good enough for (Bernie) EccJestone is good enough for us," says one insider. "You have only to look at the expression on spectators' faces at any historic parade when an MV Agusta or Gilera with four open megaphones accelerates past Yariable-cam desmo next Ducati? Ducati's model turnover will be headed by the otto va/vole superbike successor to the 916, scheduled to make its debut at the Milan Show in September arid, as exclusively revealed in this column almost a year ago, fitted with a narrower-angle 75-degree V-twin desmo engine with shorter stroke (so more revs) than the current 98 x 66= 996cc 90degree V-twin fOrmat, a flatter included valve angle and, almost certainly, gear-illiven DOHC cylinder heads. However, one significant feature which may appear on the new bike is still under consideration, namely a With the top road racing class in the world - 500cc Gl'llnd PrIx • set to go tour-strolle In 2001, we may once again _ V-elght powerplants vying for the World Championship. Pictured is the Moto Guzzi 500cc V-elght four-stroke GP engine from 1955. thein to know that this is a vital ingredient of the excitement, the thrill of Grand Prix motorcycle racing that is sadly absent today. Bringing back the sound of open-pipe four-stroke GP racing will be an essential ingredient in recapturing the passion of the highest level of motorcycle competition, and expanding the appeal of Grand Prix facing to the public at large." Yes, and it will also provide a ready means of countering the growing competition of the Superbike class's varied - if muffled - four-stroke orchestra. With the Superbike class's new.kit-bike regulations agreed upon at the Austrian summit last August set to come into effect concurrently with the new four-stroke GP rules in 2001, there will still remain a clear distinction between the tw~ classes - on paper. But the fact that this is bound to have an impact, perhaps negatively, on the continued growth of World Superbike is recognized by an FIM press release dated February 24, in which a summit meeting between the FIM, Doma and SBK promoters Flammini to discuss the implications is scheduled to take place in March. Following that, the FIM will hold another meeting with the members of the GPMA at the Japanese GP at Motegi on April 25, at which the recommendations of the Technical Committee regarding the new rules - especially differential weight limits - will be discussed, and a final set of new rules will be established. Expect an aIU10uncement around May 1 publicly confirming the new 1000cc open-exhaust four-stroke Grand Prix formula. The decision to go four-stroke, of course, applies only to the replacement for today's SOOcc class. The 250cc GP category will continue as at present, as the principal supporting act to what is likely to become known as the Formula One Moto GP class. The future of the 12Scc GP category is less certain. Though it's bound to continue as a sideshow class in order to groom young riders for future stardom, it may well lose its Grand Prix status and become "merely" a Championship category in its own right, much as Formula 3000 is in car racing. It's not thought that any other new classes are expected to join these three in a future GP race program starting in 2001. But the thought of a grid headed by factory teams of V-eight Hondas, four-eylinder Yamal1as and perhaps even, once more, MV Agusta triples, all running on open exhausts and with skyhigh revs permitted by the pneumatic valve gear that - as in today's car FormuJa One - will surely become a matter of course, makes the skin tingle. Sales of cassette recorders are likely to boom! complex but extremely effective - and compact - system of combining Ducati's trademark desmodromic positive valve operation with a mechanical system of variable valve timing, which offers much improved torque in combination with enhanced top-end power - so, the best of both worlds, when combined with the desmo setup. This system was not developed in Bologna, but brought to the company from outside, with the option of exclusive use in a motorcycle application. Whether or not its undoubted advantages do in fact appear on the forthcoming new 7S-degree engine will most likely have as much to do with commercial considerations as technical ones. The man d1arged with the onerous task of designing an all-new desmoquattro sportbike which customers around the world will perceive as a genuine step forward from Massimo Tamburini's 6-year-old 916 - a benchmark work of motorcycle art, especially in terms of looks! - is the head of the company's new Ducati Design in-house creative studio, Pierre Terblanche. Already responsible for the 900/750 Supersport launched into production a year ago, and before that during his !ime working alongside Tamburini at CRC, Pierre Terblanche with his acclaimed MH900e concept bike in the Dueati Museum In Bologna. Italy. Terblanche heads up Duc8tI's MW In-house design group. called Ducati Design. the Supermono as wdJ as Cagiva's good-selling Gran Canyon 900, Terblanche is already hard at work on the new project both in collaboration with the British design studio where he created the MR900e show bike presented at Intermot last year, and in Ducati Design's temporary offices inside the Bologna factory. But that's only a stop-gap measure, while a new hightech design studio nearby is readied, equipped with the latest in CAD/CAM hardware. Though deliberately located outside the Borgo Panigale plant, for both creative and security reasons, the new Ducati Design HQ will, says Terblanche, playa focal part in streamlining the evolution of new products. "We'll be functioning independently, but also acting as a catalyst for the various aspects of bringing a bike to market, by linking with engineering, marketing and even the sales departments at a much earlier stage," he says. "So we'll be matching the reality of series production with the development of new models - for example, by bringing in our suppliers much earlier, so we can work together with them on what we need from them while the bike's still in design phase. This will cut down on the time needed to launch a new model, as well as improve· the quality of the final product." The successor to the 916 will be the first new model to benefit from the establishment of Ducati Design, with all future models to be developed in-house.

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