March Superbike Takes Shape

MARCH SUPERBIKE TAKES SHAPE

KENNY ROBERTS' three-cylinder 500cc grand prix bike isn't the only racing motorcycle being developed in England's Formula One heartland. March, the famed chassis constructor whose race cars won several F-1 GPs in the 1970s before the company turned its attention to Indycars, is currently working on a Superbike.

With a consortium of Ameri can investors bankrolling the project, March is focusing on the development of a brand-new 750cc Four, which the company plans to launch in time for the 1998 World Superbike season.

Originally projected to house a V-Four engine produced by British designer Al Melling (whose name has recently been linked with new engine projects for Norton and MZ), the format of the March Superbike has now been revised to include a Melling-designed, fuel-injected, slant-block, inline-Four.

The engine will be housed in a chassis that has already been drawn up at the factory. British designer John Keogh (whose artist's conception of the ma chine is reprinted here) is work ing on the full-size clay version of the distinctively styled, ag gressive-looking bodywork, using a polystyrene model of the proposed engine.

One factor that may slow down the project (whose serious ness was underlined by company boss Les McTaggart's presence at the World Superbike construc tors meeting held at Monza ear lier this year) is the news that rival racecar constructor Lola has commissioned Melling to produce a new V10 to power its return to F-i car racing in 1998, a prestige project that may take preference over the March motorcycle engine. Ironically, Lola was March's biggest rival in Indycar racing for more than a decade, eventually usurping its British neighbors as the chassis of choice in U.S. open-wheel racing. Lola, in turn, lost its supremacy to Reynard, March's near neighbors who are coinci dentally based in the same town.

Alan Cathcart