Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Stelle Whitelock r decided will be 1.5:1, we 'd say we 're go ing to lim it you to 14 ,000 rpm - and that's what we 've done. Now we don 't hav e a b ik e in th e m arketplace at present with anything as oversquare as that j ust yet - but if one comes along , we 'll make it run with an FlM-approved electronic revlimiter. When I ran the current generation of engines we have in the market at the moment, or have coming next year, into my computer, which has a power program loaded into it, and limited them all to 14, 0 00 rpm , I found that th ey each made around 200 horsepower, and if you take that same p rogram and feed in the 999 Du cati, it ma k es 197 ho rsepower at the rev limit , which I know by m y investigation s it rea lly revs to , which is 27.5 meters per sec ond. Th at's over 13,000 rpm , wh ich makes it som e revved -up twin . So wh en I looked at it , I figured that was quite enough piston speed for safe, reliabl e racing , so by reta ining th e right to revli m it any eng ine that co mes alo ng - with how ever many cy li nde rs - to 14 ,000 rpm in ultr asho rt-stro ke form , I fig u re w e h ave th ing s n icely balanced. Tha t 's even m ore th e case wh en you figure everyone 's wo rking th rou gh the sam e pretty .srnall t ire co nta ct patch , with a 6 .25 -inch ma ximum rear rim for bot h Supe rb ike s and Mot oGP. T hat' s right - that's going to limit the size of the ti re you can put on the motorcycle, so whether yo u try to dri ve 200 ho rsepower through that con tact pat ch or 250 horsep ower, th at is the contact patch, whi ch is why at th e few common ci rc u it s we share with MotoGP, we 're doing sim ilar lap ti m es to th em with heavi er, le ss powerful , st ree t - de ri ve d motorcycl es . The y can 't go fast er i n Mot oGP because they don 't have the rubber on the ro ad , an d until they c hang e the rules and allow bigger ti res - w h ic h I don ' t think they 're going to do, becau se it's a nice limiting factor for safety purposes - our guys are always going to be nipping at their heels in terms of lap times, if never qu ite there with the best of the best, j ust as fast or faster than the ones fu rth er back . That's good - it's just where we want to be . How about elec t ron ics? Did you ever conside r standardizing the w iring l oo m, 'wh ich i s a costly componen t? No, that's all free - yo u can use any ECU you want , build any wiring loom you like, and tailor it to the motorcycle any way you like. You can also change the fue l pump and pressure regulator, and the intake insulator rubbers and throttle body trum pets are all open - y ou can have differing -length ones on different cylinders. if you wa nt. Ho wever, again for cost reas ons , the one th ing you can't do is fit variable -length intak e devices wh ich function while the engine is running, unless this is installed on the street motorcycle - as it is fo r rexarnple on the new Tamburini MV Ag usta F4 Mille. That could race with this system , but a Suzuki, no . Okay, I th ink that exp lains very cl early what you're go ing to be doi ng next season in Worl d Superbike to even things up - but no w let m e ask you why you decided t o balance up the di f ferent types of b ikes thi s wa y , r at h er th an w i t h the restrictors which everyone was theoretically ready to race with next season, or the way the Japanese have always seem to have preferred it - with differential weight limits. Let m e address th e wei ght issue first. I don 't like th e we ight of ou r m otorcycles as it is th ey 'd b e lo ts happie r b ikes i f't hey w ere m u ch lighter. Wh en yo u start t o pack th e kilos onto the th ings, the y're getting to a p la ce wh ere th ey' re hard t o handle. When th ey do get out of control, they're 20 NOVEMBER 5 , 2003' cue I e n e hard to correct, and when even tually the y start fli p p ing through the air, the y become dangerous object s. If we could m ak e the m 15 or 20 kilos [33 to 44 poundsj lighter, I'd be a lot happier . S o would the riders , and especially the tire companies! T hat' s right. Unfortunately, we don't get to go to the nicest racetrack any more, which was Hockenheim - and there it was kilos times speed times tire depth plus x amount of pra yer. Therefore , if we co uld have li ghter rather than heavier motorbikes, I' d be m uch happi er - so wh en p eop l e sta rt talking about making twins heavier so as to balance them all up on the weights , I don 't regard that as a safe wa y to do it. As far as restrictors go , I j ust don 't be lie ve in that system, and I think you 'd ha ve a hard ti me seIling to the public, to o. In A me rica , we have a bit of ex pe ri ence wi th restr ictors - we've t ri ed t he m on motorc ycl es, where they ca used a lot of co ntrove rsy , but the m ost obvious p lace yo u see .th em t oda y is in NASCAR restrict or -p lat e racing on t he fast Super speedwa ys , where th ey 're tryi ng to ho ld th e speed down. But what happens is that yo u can bui ld the power eventually. almost to t he same level as with an unrestricted stra ight-through intake system, but it takes almost two laps to get tjJ car moving and th e power developed if you have to back off the gas for any reason. So what occu rs in NASCAR is that you see the drivers when a sit uation happens being very hesita nt to let off the throttle - otherwise when th ey cli m b back into it again, th ere's no acceleration, and it' s reall y lazy . What I'm sure eventuall y wo uld have rear ed it s ugl y head i s th at we 'd ge t rid ers in th e po sition whe re th ey had to ro ll: back out of the th rot tl e th en get back in it agai n, ~a nd then you' re in big tr oubl e - you can 't use th e power to dodge the problem, so that means you're , going to have to face that problem directly, because when you get back on the throttle to drive out of the situation , it just rolls over on you. In slower turns on a road co urse , it's t h e o pposi te p robl em - yo u get much fiercer accelera tion getting back on the gas down low from a closed throttle , with a lot of extra to rque which on a 200-horsepower motorcycle ,weigh ing 162 kilos [356 pounds], is going to make the bike do th in gs n either you nor the ti re want it to do - as [Gregorio] La vil la proved th is year on the r e st r i c t e d Suzuki. B u t in a ddition t o th at, w ere y ou co n cerned about ma nu fa ct urer s spe nd i ng m oney bu ildi ng a f u ll r ac e eng ine, then watch ing it get st rangled by re stric tors? T hat was our biggest argument aga inst the ~ ~ r es t r i ct or s w h en t h e y •• ~ -"'_. st art ed t alk in g a b out th em . F irst y o u te ll the com pany to go ahea d and _ _ _ _ _ -I ' spend all the money it can Q A .... s on all the trick parts - special .cranks. tit anium rods , I fu ll - rac e pistons, fancy cylinder heads, trick fuel i nj e c~ (m , exoti c p rimary g ea r drives - ever yth ing you can do to make .it the bes t motorcycle in the world. Oh , but by the 'w ay , now we have this little disc for the throttle body - you tune it up just to slow it down, when in fact you could have had the sam e power output for a lot less work and money. That's what we're try ing to achieve with these new rules , and I believe we have the means to do exactly th at. We're aiming to provide the basis fo r close, exciti ng , eve nly m atched competition which thrills the crowds and delivers value-for-money racing for both teams and manufacturers . That's done by low ering cos ts wh il e still reta ining competitive levels of performance, which are equa lized between th e different t y p e s of b i k e , and al so take s a bi g st ep tow ard achievi ng the FIM 's sta ted obje ctive for the cl ass. Th is is to have a single un ifi ed Sup erb ike reg ulation acro ss th e world , at both Wor ld level as well as in Na tio na l ser ie s li ke the AMA an d Bri ti sh Superbike, and I ho pe th e MSMA will stop complaining about the ir hurt fee lings long eno ugh to see that what we 're trying to do here is to revitalize the c1is;-and sa ~~ 't he~ a lot of money in the p rocess by establishing a set of ru les which mean they only have to work on developing one level of Sup erb ik e specific ation in t he fu t ure, rather th an t he ha lf dozen they hav e to wo rk on at present , for different cham'p icm shl ps - World , AMA, BSB , All -J apa n and so on . It's a process of rat ion ali zation wh ich is long overdue, and I beli eve th ese new FIM rules are the ca tal yst for making sure that happen,s. CN ..a..;... __

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