Motogp's Newest Recruits

MOTOGP’S NEWEST RECRUITS

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SZUKI WILL PUSH ITS X-REO Grand Prix bike ahead of schedule by one full year to compete in the sea-son-opening Japanese GP at Suzuka in April. Rapid progress on the new 990cc four-stroke may partly explain why Kenny Roberts Jr.’s two-stroke RGV500 lacked development last season.

Recently released photographs of the X-REO show a matte-black fairing bearing only sponsor logos. The bike is conventional, with four-piston Brembo calipers, carbon brake discs, a highly streamlined front fender, twin “nostril” air intakes and a fully shcetcd-in aluminum swingarm.

The engine shown is a singlecrankshaft, 60-degree V-Four with a deep wet sump. There is barely room for all four bellmouths of the very short intake stacks in the narrow Vcc. There is one fuel-injector per stack, located just at the edge of each throttle butterfly. The narrow Vangle makes this engine short from front to back, allowing forward mounting that preserves steering during hard acceleration. A 60-degrcc V-Four has unbalanced primary rocking forces, which require a countcrbalancer.

Aprilia, meanwhile, revealed its RS3 GP bike at the Bologna Show this past December. The engine, an inline-Triplc, is very short from top to bottom thanks to its dry sump and suspected very short stroke. Official understatement rates the pneumatic-valve engine (which some allege to be three cylinders from a Formula One V-10) at “more than 200 horsepower at more than 15,000 rpm.” Aprilia says the engine will have “rideby-wire accelerator control,” which is another way to say “virtual nowerband.”

The bike features stealth fighter-like faceted chassis and swingarm surfaces, a sculptured fairing and gas tank, and Aprilia’s usual carbon-fiber seat frame.

Yamaha continues to test its YZR-M l, most recently at Phillip Island, Australia, and Sepang, Malaysia. No times were released from either venue According to project leader Ichiro Yoda, the purpose of the

tests was to develop "consis tent race-distance performances from the bike, the riders and the tires.”

Max Biaggi commented that the four-stroke’s engine braking took some getting used to, but noted that its power was much smoother than that of the two-stroke on which he finished second in last year’s championship. Many believe the Yamaha is now running with carburetors rather than fuel-injection. If so, the likely reason would be that it’s easier to get very smooth off-the-bottom running from carbs than from injection. Right now, it’s more important to develop the bike’s off-comer accelcration than to extract the last few peak horsepower from the engine. Early acceleration beats top speed every time.

Honda’s first European test of its GP four-stroke, the RC211V, came at Jerez in Spain, last November. Newly crowned 250cc World Champion Daijiro Katoh was quickest at this test, riding a two-stroke NSR500 V-Four for the first time. Reigning 500cc champ Valentino Rossi bettered his May, 2001, Jerez lap record of 1:43.8 on the new four-stroke, running a best of 1:43.1. Tohru Ukawa, also RCV-mounted, lapped even quicker at 1:43.0.

HRC team manager Noriaki Nakata said the goal of the test was finding “a basic, fundamental setup,” rather than the quickest setup. This, he said, was accomplished. Rossi was bothered by rear-wheel hop from “strong engine braking.” Problems of this kind suggest that the RCV is still at an early stage of development. The official word from HRC director Koji Nakajima was that, “We have made all the planned progress.”

Now, we await details of four-stroke GP bikes from Ducati and Kawasaki.

Kevin Cameron