Blast From the Future

Blast from the Future

TDC

KEVIN CAMERON

EVER SINCE MOTO2 WAS ANNOUNCED as the spec-engine replacement for the 250cc Grand Prix class, we’ve wondered whether this implies there will soon be a “Motol” replacing the present 800cc prototype class. Last July at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, confused rumors bubbled up to the effect that specials, powered by l000cc production-based-but-modified engines, might if necessary be used to pad out shrinking grids.

But now it can be told: The Motorcycle Sport Manufacturers Association (MSMA), representing the manufacturers competing in MotoGP, has agreed that the new class, effective at the start of 2012, will have four levels, as follows:

1) Factory prototype engines, limited to lOOOcc and four cylinders, and a bore of 81mm. This will prevent strokes from shrinking away to nothing.

2) As number 1 but leased to satellite teams.

3) A leased factory engine as in number 1 but with other chassis.

4) Prototype chassis but powered by a stock-based engine with only specified modifications permitted.

Each rider would be limited to six engines per season, and the present 800cc prototypes would be allowed to compete with the above for one year.

Why this change? People in the manufacturer game have said, “We don’t have any choice.” It’s pure economics. An open-prototype class is too expensive for the world economy as it is, but closing down MotoGP would extinguish the brightest light giving sparkle and attraction to motorcycling worldwide. It would also terminate what has proven to be a profitable business. Have a look around: Even giant corporations like aircraft-engine makers Pratt & Whitney, GE, MTU and Rolls-Royce now have to cooperate to jointly afford the extreme development costs of sophisticated new engines. Similar consortia are in operation in the automotive field because of the high costs of compliance with emissions, fuel economy and crashworthiness standards.

You have probably noticed that the new class structure satisfies several

conditions at once. First, for the teams, it provides a way for the show to continue. Mass bug-outs of factory teams took place in 1954, ’55, ’57 and ’67, followed by lackluster eras of mostly low-bucks private competition. Neither the TV side nor the manufacturers can afford such a dreary outcome. Therefore, they have agreed at a high level to create a formula that continues the show, allows useful development, avoids direct conflict with World Superbike and grants the general wish of riders for high-torque machines that will be less dependent upon extreme corner speed for their lap times.

What sort of engines will result? If a manufacturer exploits the bore/stroke ratio rule to the full and develops components to survive peak piston accelerations at present MotoGP levels, peak-power rpm will be close to 17,000 and horsepower could reach 260. If an rpm limit is imposed, some development costs of extreme rpm will be avoided and power will fall in proportion to rpm—for example, at 15,000, we could expect power to be in the 220-240-hp range.

Some feel that this new formula will make pneumatic valves unnecessary, but that is based on the idea that pneumatics are useful only for reaching extreme rpm. That is not so. Giving an engine what it needs in the way of valve timing and rates of opening and closing calls for “squarer” valve-lift curves than are attainable with metal valve springs. Pneumatics, able to tolerate the higher valve accelerations this demands, are useful in delivering what engines want even at less-than-ragged-edge rpm.

Romantics are free to imagine that these high-torque motorcycles will bring back the showy tail-sliding antics of another era, but as tires are presently developed, that is unlikely. Those who slide

today are rewarded by downfield finishes. Even at the end of the 500cc twostroke era, five-time World Champion Mick Doohan said that early in races it was faster to ride a corner-speed style then switch to the risk-limiting point-andshoot when the tires lost the bloom of youth. But today, the fastest laps in races are often set very near the end—big difference. It may be that the romantics will have to curl up at home with old Wayne Rainey/Kevin Schwantz video tapes.

Another point to ponder is the color green. Will these 25-percent-larger engines receive the same tight 21-liter fuel allowance as the present 800s? Will they be given the 22 liters that the 990s enjoyed in their final year? Because the tighter the fuel allowance, the less room there will be for tiresmoking stunt riding; keeping the tires in line saves fuel. It may be hard to be green and be flashy. How about the alcohol fuel some car series have used to “green up?” Alcohol contains only two-thirds of the energy of petroleum hydrocarbons by volume, so 21 liters of gas would become 31 liters of alcohol. Not only is that a big tank of a heavier fluid but when spilled alcohol burns, it does so with a flame invisible to corner workers.

You’ve probably also noticed that this set of rules allows entry into MotoGP by a “side door,” namely that a company such as Aprilia, already producing its racy RSV4, would be eligible to compete in MotoGP simply by producing a prototype chassis. It appears this may be the intention, as its Moto2 test last December was canceled. Any other company could do the same: produce a short-stroke production bike engine one year and then race it in MotoGP the next. We had always expected Honda to do the inverse of this—to spin off a V-Five production bike from the established reputation of its 990cc RC21IV—but Ducati was the only one to take this route.

And what about tires? What will Bridgestone do when its MotoGP spectire contract expires after the 2010 season? Will they re-up? Expect to see Dorna politely holding the door for Michelin and Dunlop at any meetings that may, just by chance, occur. Burning bridges is most unwise.

I hope it all works as planned. I love prototypes because they blaze trails into the unknown. But, at present, human imagination considerably exceeds human finance. □