P136
CN
III IN THE PADDOCK
BY MICHAEL SCOTT
"F
ly me to the ground, and
let me play among the
tar." It's MotoGP's new
theme song, as—like so many
butterflies unfurling from the
chrysalis—previously sleek and
smooth fairings sprout wings.
Wings in all sorts of places,
at all sorts of angles, and in all
sorts of numbers. The record so
far is held jointly between Honda
and Suzuki, with triplane—three
fairing-flank wings each side.
Or did Ducati get there first?
The big red bikes have several
times essayed a two-tier biplane
lower wing along with further
winglets on the nose. But per-
haps, bending aircraft tradition,
the front ones should be called
"canards." A word with more
than one significant meaning.
It is certainly Ducati to blame
for the whole thing. There'd
been a small handful of private
eccentrics in the past—in the
'70s one ex-Rhodesian Colin
Lyster made one for a 450
Honda—huge, movable, and
mounted high above the back
wheel in the days when wheelies
were less of a problem. And the
Suzuki GP team tried little side-
strakes in the early 1980s. But
the current aerodynamic revolu-
tion was kickstarted by Ducati in
GP WINGLETS: GET AIR OR BE SQUARE
