Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/707505
VOL. 53 ISSUE 29 JULY 26, 2016 P79 THE GERMAN CONNECTION "W hy choose a BMW engine? Even though it wasn't Italian, he believed it had the greatest potential for development. He also admired its de- sign, its reliability and the performance it had achieved in superbike racing. He believed it was the best four-cylin- der engine available in the marketplace and he reasoned that what he intended should be the finest no-compromises motorcycle yet designed should have a similarly excellent engine. He also wanted it to be a bike built to be used on the racetrack in top level competition, rather than stuck in someone's front room as a two-wheeled oil painting, but an effec- tive, high performance motorcycle, more than just a beautiful one, which would have had a super high level of attention focused on its performance and effec- tiveness. We had some aerodynamic studies made by a Swiss com- pany which confirmed that in the form we have presented it, the T12 has an exceptionally good Cx figure, comparable to Marquez's 2012 Honda, but I don't think it looks so ugly, do you? "We never contacted BMW until the bike was already built and be- ing tested, so we didn't get the engine from them directly, as many people have speculated. Absolutely not⎯we did it completely under the radar as far as they were concerned. We bought an S 1000 RR from the Rimini BMW dealer, took the engine out of it, and measured up the mounting points to build the frame. Then, through Davide Tardozzi, who, of course, was Bimota's fac- tory rider just after my fa- ther left them, but whom he knew well and was at that time manager of the BMW factory superbike team, we obtained that bike's oil sump and water pump housing which, be- ing machined from solid aluminum, are different on the superbike racer from the road bike. We wanted to make sure that the BMW superbike en- gine would fit in the frame in the hope we might one day obtain one. That's all in the future. At the mo- ment the bike which Luca Cadalora tested for us at Modena has a street bike S 1000 RR motor fitted with the side-exit Arrow titanium race exhaust, but the bodywork and frame are ready to accept a su- perbike race motor once we obtain one. "Once we had finished the bike, we contacted BMW and invited them to come and look at it. They came twice. The second time we had the top peo- ple in the BMW Motorrad design and marketing di- visions, who were literally lost for words! My father's work has that effect on people. I remember very well what you wrote after seeing the Ducati 916 prototype for the first time six months before it was launched! BMW took the T12 and analyzed it in depth and admitted they would find it very difficult to achieve such a high level of detail in so many elements, being a large series production com- pany rather than a small design house. Therefore, they told us they would be happy to give us what- ever we need to pursue the project into limited production, because for them—BMW—it's an honor to see their engine forming the basis of such a design. This will include supplies of their highest- spec 235 bhp superbike engine as and when we want it, or else a super- stock version for less extreme performance. If we do put it into limited production, as seems increasingly likely, we will be able to offer custom- ers the choice of such engines." BMW was unaware of the T12's creation until they were invited to in- spect it—you can image what they said when they saw it! Just look at that Arrow exhaust! Have you ever seen anything so exquisite?