Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

the numbers just 24 months ago to genuine ontender~ for GP victory in the toughest arena of all, with an array of avantgarde technology that matches anything the Japanese works teams have, and a response time in terms of development or modification that urpa e them, With two superb choice for their 1993 riding strength - one a proven title contender, the other a certain tip for future tardom - Cagiva looks like they have all the bases covered. The Castiglioni brothers' dream of winning a 500cc GP came true in 1992 - but next season, they can realistically set their sights on winning the World Championship title and giving the Japanese factories nightmares! (Above) Cagiva's carbon-fiber swingann and 190mm Tilfon carbon disc brakes make up the rear of the bike. (Left) Lawson's Cagiva used 43mm Showa inverted forks, and two Biembo carbon disc brakes - one measuring 32Omm. and the other 290mm. with Eddie Lawson's repeated wishes, offering more bottom end power than before - in real terms, not just the friendlier power delivery of the Big Bang motor. The engine's location can now be readily varied in the chassis - the single biggest improvement to designer Romano Albesiano's alumi-' nium frame, which also allows the position of the swingarm pivot to be adjusted as well, though Cagiva admits to experimenting mainly with engine location this season. Now that the basic design is essentially finalized, Cagiva plans to have their colleagues at Ferrari Engineering (an offshoot of the legendary car manufacturer, directed by Enzo's son Piero) construct another carbon fiber chassis like the first one they made for them back in 1990, in P.E. (Pre-Eddie!) days. Ferrari already built the beautiful carboni honeycomb swingarm fitted to the V592, which Rosa says weighs the same -as an alloy fabrication but is considerably stiffer. With the current bike scaling right on the 296 pound class limit, Cagiva doesn't need to explore the superior stiffness-to-weight ratio offered by a carbon frame in order to save weight - only to add stiffness at no cost in pounds! Ferrari is also making carbon wheels for Cagiva which have already been tested, and will be used on next season's bike at both ends, in order to reduce unsprung weight, lessen the gyroscopic effect on the steering, and compact the mass of the whole motorcycle for a reduced polar moment. Riccardo Rosa believes that Cagiva's big emphasis in the coming season will be on chassis development - especially with a change of tire suppliers from Dunlop to Michelin for '93, as well as two new riders in the form of Doug Chandler and Aussie rookie Mat Mladin. "Our tests at Catalunya last season, when we moved the engine forward and Dunlop produced a, new rear tire, were the key to our good results - it all came after that," Rosa says, "Of course the Bombardone engine format was important, but its arrival 'obscured the rest of our development, which resulted in an effective total package - the new engine helped the chassis, but Showa perhaps helped most of all! I think Michelin will surely complete the picture - the Dunlops lasted only five laps, though the front was always better than the'Michelins last season. But we had problems with the rear tire that were never resolved - maybe the best idea would be to have a 'Michelop' tire deal, with a separate contract for each wheel! But I'm sure the switch to Michelin is the right step - Eddie tested Michelins before the final race on Dunlops at Kyalami, and went a whole second faster on them than he could on Dunlops, That's a lot!" It's impossible not to be impressed by the scale of Cagiva's achievement, to come from no-hopers making up On the track Cagiva must have a direct line to the Vatican, and thence to the Man Upstair. How else to explain that for my Mugello test of Eddie Law on's Hungarian GP-winning V592, they managed to arrange an almost dry track for my first session - using the intermediate tires Eddie won his GP on - then for the second, damp but drying track conditions exactly resembling those prevailing in Hungary on the day the Castiglioni brothers' 10year dream came true?! Such efficiency. Actually, the mixed track conditions offered a fuller understanding of just what a milestone in Cagiva's GP development the 'Bombardone' big bang engine represents, as well as an appreciation of how much solid work the team have invested in the past year, since I rode their '91 Lady in Red at a damp and slippery Pergusa track in Sicily. That bike was already a vast improvement over its snatchy sisters from the pre-Eddie era, with their sudden power delivery, narrow usable power band and total lack of overrev. For the first time, you could hold a gear with a Cagiva race engine and allow it to run up to 800 rpm over the peak power mark before it started to struggle - a vital feature nowadays where so many new tracks like MagnyCours have such short straights and so many turns. But the big improve'ment was at the other end of the rev scale, where under constant prompting from Eddie Lawson, engine designer Ezio Mascheroni and his team of engineers at last succeeded in smoothing out the power delivery low down, and increasing power at low revs, which in GP racing terms means from 7-8000 rpm upwards. However, they weren't done yet, because the '91 Cagiva motor wasn't perfect: the engine was still snappy enough in midrange to unhook the back wheel very easily in a turn when the power came in strong, plus the whole power curve had too many layers - not outright holes like before , which would make the bike bog down out of corners, but a lack of continuous, linear shove that definitely affected acceleration. Even before the mid-season arrival of the Bombardone, Cagiva did much to remedy this defect on their '92 motor, which has the same basic design as the '91 engine; the big bang version took care of the rest and the result is now an engine that, if it still doesn't quite have the top end power and appetite for revs of its Japanese rivals, is at least as good everywhere else. Just riding down pit lane at Mugello, you realize what a big improvement it is that Cagiva has wrought. Firstly, though the Bombardone motor still vibrates a bit through the bars and footrests, thanks to its 80+ degree firing angle for all four cylinders, it's apparently a lot better now than it was when first te ted, and is certainly no worse than the similarformat RGV500 Suzuki I tested only a couple of weeks beforehand. The vibes don't intrude on your riding the bike, but a you accelerate out onto the track, and later as you exit a slow chicane, you realize what a real improvement in both traction and useability the latest Cagiva engine represents. It'll drive cleanly from as low as 6500 rpm - the powervalve starts to open at just 6000 revs; which is exceptionally low by Japanese GP standards, and isn't rotated fully open till just over 10,000 rpm, an unusually wide range of operation. The electronic wizardry through which the operation of the cylindrical powervalve i linked to the ignition curve, gear selected, engine speed and throttle position is undoubtedly mainly responsibile for the smooth yet potent way the Cagiva engine picks up speed from low down, combined with the cylinder design (five different versions were used for the '92 season), and exhaust pipe (two different type employed this eason). Gone are the layers of power that made the bike eem to falter slightly when accelerating hard. Gone too is the sudden rush of power around 9000 rpm that made it all too easy to make the back wheel step out on a damp track at Pergusa a year ago. Now, instead, there's a lovely linear pull from way low to quite high, the sort of torquey delivery that has the front wheel standing lazily in the air in any one of the bottom three 'gears as you whack the throttle wide open out o{ turns, No wonder Eddie found the bike so effective on a damp track en route to victory. The reason you can do this with relative impunity without suffering a severe shock to your self-preservation system is because of the fantastic traction the Bombardone engine layout delivers. Riding a bike deliverIng 'over 170 bhp' at the gearbox on a damp track isn't omething you can ever say is easy, especially if you're not one of the handful of GP aces accustomed to coping with such dramas. But this was the first time I'd ridden a Big Bang 500cc V-4 engine in the wet, and whereas before this would be a prime reason for total cop-out with the throttle hand until you felt you were reasonably upright and more or less straight, now you can start to kid yourself that just maybe you can ride this bike hard in the wet without it biting back. In the dry, the Cagiva is as userfriendly and tractable out of turns as I'd expected after riding the Big Bang Honda and Suzuki - but it was in the wet that it was a real eye-opener. The extra bottom end power, combined with the smoother delivery of the , '92 motor and the extra traction of the Bombardone firing layout gives you so much confidence. Even when you get carried away and use a little too much throttle, the back wheel just spins a little, like on a four-stroke, and it's relatively easy to calm everything down and get it back into line. On the old engine, getting the back end stepped out in the wet was a recipe for instant disaster - not that I'd probably ever have got that far, because I'd have been too wimpish to try! With the new-style motor, tbere's no such inhibitions; this is a major advance in promoting rider confidence. The Cagiva feels a lot more refined in its power delivery than before, with strong power coming in smoothly around 8000 rpm - 1000 revs lower than in '91 - and an evenly progressive increase up to the 11,900 rpm peak

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