Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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The past and the future: the final version of the 498cc Proton KR threecylinder two-stroke put out around 180 hp at 12,200rpm. The g90cc 20valve V-five will produce around 200 horsepower at 15,000 rpm in initial tests, with plenty more to come as development progresses, the team says. Yamahas; in the late '70s, he kicked aside European legends to rule road racing; and in the '90s, as a team manager, he guided Wayne Rainey and John Kocinski to World Championships. In the late '90s, he turned constructor and pitted the lightweight Modenas - its title before it was changed to Proton - against the fourcylinder bikes of the Japanese manufacturers. It didn't work: the Proton was always underpowered. Six years is a long time for a streetfighting maverick like Roberts to go without a win. Now Grand Prix racing is going four-stroke - and Roberts sees another chance to humiliate the big guys. He claims to have two competitive advantages: Formula One auto-racing technology and a nimbler, fastermoving operation. "I moved to England because of the Formula One cottage industry," Roberts says. "The F1 people have experience in running four-stroke engines on the racetrack: piston speeds, bore-and-stroke ratios, valve timing, camshafts. We're looking for avenues that will permit us to frogjump into F1 technology. "Some of the materials that they have used so successfully we would like to bring into the equation. We want to use more carbon fiber - that needs to be taken to another level and other materials that can make a component stronger, lighter and per- form better. There are all kinds of things that we could make better and lighter in our motor. Almost every new technology will hit F1 first." Banbury is in the heart of Britain's Formula One constructors' belt. Williams, Jordan, Jaguar, Cosworth, BAR and Renault are near-neighbors, together with the component manufacturers who supply them. So, Roberts figured, he would have easy access to hi-tech parts and people. His captures include his operations manager Charlie Moody, who worked with Keke Rosberg at Williams; Dave Crabtree, who was at McLaren during the Ayrton Senna era; Les Jones, Grand Prix teams, as well as chief race engineer Tom O'Kane, 14 years with Team Roberts, and a guru of motorcycle dynamics and computer simulation programs. "We're lucky to be working with Kenny because he has this complete fascination with what makes a motorcycle work," says O'Kane. "Nobody knows more about motorcycle racing than him. He has a big presence when he walks in you can't be unaware of him. But he gives you the latitude that you want to try something, and if it doesn't work, it's no big deal - at least we've learned something." Back in the drawing office, John Magee takes a few minutes of downtime to talk about the V-five engine. He believes that useable power, delivered at the lowest revs possible, will be more important than ultimate power in the big one-liter MotoGP missiles. "We can produce more power than we'll actually need," he explains. "We'll probably be dependent on tires, so we'll be asking Bridgestone how much power they can get to the ground and aim for that." The Proton KR has three forwardsloping cylinders and two at the rear, four-valve cylinder heads and twin gear-driven camshafts. Magee declines to reveal details such as the engine's bore-and-stroke dimensions and the valve angles. He says that riders Jeremy McWilliams and Nobuatso Aoki will have some 200 horsepower at around 15,000 rpm for ini- who was the mechanic on Damon Hill's championship-winning Williams in 1996; and Paul Bowen, a stress analyst and carbon-fiber specialist who was at Ferrari for three years. Other recent hires used to build Reynard and March chassis for American lndycar racing and engines for the ultra-competitive British Touring Car series. Roberts hopes that this cache of F1 experience will mesh with his existing band of bike-savvy engineers to create a turbulent new force in motorcycle racing. The latter include Nick Davies, who brings experience from the Honda, Suzuki and Yamaha Fonner Ferrari F1 technician Paul Bowen creates the new bike onscreen. One of numerous F1 hires In Roberts' squad, he is charged with delivering an integrated motorcycle to the racetrack. cue' e n e _ os • DECEMBER 4, 2002 13