Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

erly low down when I rode it - Morini is still experimenting with final setup for the Marelli EFI - the 54m single-butterfiy throttle bodies give smooth, controllable pickup out of a tum on a twisting mountain road, with not too jerky a pickup from a closed throttle. In fact, the legendary connection which GP riders dream of is present in spades here. You can feel with your right hand how the power is going to the ground via the back tire, and that was a particular bonus in the slippery conditions along part of the way thanks to the early morning frost. As the morning wore on and the sun got up to dry the road surface, I began to appreciate how much confidence the wellsorted chassis provides. Even the stiff suspension didn't make the Corsaro skip or jump around unduly on rougher surfaces, and the good grip from the Pirelli Diablo rubber didn't reveal any inconsistencies in the chassis department. However, the jUry's out on this aspect of the Corsaro's behavior until I can take it to a circuit in dry conditions and try a bit harder than I was prepared to do in these. Hard to avoid saying it, but the Moto Morini Corsaro shows every sign, on the basis of this short initial ride, of being a bike that is going to give Ducati just as much of a headache as the MV Agusta F4 did when it was launched six years ago. For this was/is the bike the iconic 916 through 99B Ducati models should have evolved into but couldn't, and probably the only way to counter this problem was to make the 999 as radically different to look at compared to the 916 as it is. Now, here's Moto Morini doing the same thing to Ducati with a Monster competitor - and after riding it, you have to pinch yourself to be convinced this isn't the more modern-looking, re-engineered Evo version of the Monster that Ducati really should have built any time in the past five years, but hasn't yet. Maybe when the Corsaro 1200 hits the highways next spring, Ducati will have to. eN TE[H: Born Again Designed by Moto Morini veteran progeltista Franco Lambertini - who's at pains to stress that it's a clean-sheet design, not a rehashed version of the abortive IOOOcc 90-degree vtwin Gilera Superbike engine he penned for Piaggio more than a decade ago, which so far hasn't yet reached production - the liquid-cooled, B7-degree, V-twin eight-valve CorsaCorta (as in, short-stroke) motor fitted to both new Moto Morini models launched at Bologna is essentially the same engine, de-stroked to obtain the 9 1/2's smaller capacity. So in II B7cc Corsaro guise, the fuelinjected CorsaCorta liquid-cooled, 87degree, V-twin eight-valve engine weighs just 151.2 pounds, featuring a side-loading sixspeed gearbox, DOHC cylinder heads, composite chain/gear cam drive, and the same I07mm-bore three-ring forged piston as in the smaller, 998cc-capacity motor fitted in the 9 1/2. However, the engine more than lives up to its name, with a 55.5mm stroke to deliver an exceptionally oversquare bore/stroke ratio of more than 2: I. The 107 x 66mm Corsaro version delivers 140 bhp at the crankcase at 8500 rpm (translating to 126 bhp at the rear wheel), with 123 Nm (90.77 ft.llbs.) of torque on tap at 6500 rpm, while the higher-revving 107 x 55.5mm 91/2 motor produces 105 bhp at 9000 rpm, with 98 Nm (72.32 ft./lbs.) prOVided at 6200 rpm. Compare this claimed output with the I 13 bhp and 95.5 Nm (70.47 ft.llbs.) that Ducati says its S4R Monster produces from its same-capacity engine trellis frame. Engine length is just 350mm in total, with the sWingarm pivoting in the crankcases. Another unusual design feature is the use on the new Moto Morini engine of a nowadays-unique one-piece crankcase - i.e., with no horizontal or vertical split into two halves. Engine internals are assembled from the left side, for reasons which Franco Lambertini eagerly explains. "The great advantage of an engine conceived in this way is that, once mounted in the frame, it's extremely stiff and sions regulations coming into effect in 2007 - even if this dictates the fat, ugly exhaust silencers fitted to the show model. Though the Corsaro 1200 prototype doesn't have a slipper clutch, Morini is working on one, and it may be retrofitted if it's decided to be adopted. For the time being, the six-speed transmission features an oil-bath conventional clutch. motor stands in the marketplace. Moreover, although the CorsaCorta engine has no desmo can be used as a fully load-bearing chassis component, allowing for a reduction in all-up weight as well as a more rigid motorcycle," the designer says. "It also has the advantage of reducing machining and assembly costs because you don't valvegear, it does boast several innovative features in addi- have to true up two halves of the same whole - it's cast in a its unusual B7-degree angle for the Nikasil chrome-bore cylinders which are rotated backward on the crankcase compared to an L-twin like any Ducati thus permitting a shorter wheelbase - is packaging, says designer Lambertini. Reducing the cylinder angle by 3 degrees at the crankcase allows him to save 30mm in space between the cylinder heads, without single piece with side covers." for a comparative assessment of where the Moto Morini tion to its ultrashort-stroke format. The reason for having to use a counterbalancer to smooth out undue vibra- tion, and this in turn allows the motor to be installed more compactly as a fully stressed component of the tubular steel superbike - and you can be quite sure there will be one of those in due course, only not just yet. The plain-bearing engine has paired forged conrods sitting on a one-piece crankshaft with an unusual composite camdrive system. This sees a short train of pinions up the side of each cylinder leading to an intermediate gear, which in tum drives a short Hy-Vo chain that operates the twin overhead camshafts per cylinder. The pairs of valves (43.5mm inlets, 35mm exhausts) each wear dual springs and sit at a very flat 21-

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