Saving Fuel, Wasting Racing?

Saving Fuel, Wasting Racing?

TDC

KEVIN CAMERON

LAST FALL, THE FIM ANNOUNCED THAT in 2014, MotoGP prototype machines will get five engines per rider, per season, instead of the present six. This means each engine must last 3.6 race weekends instead of the current three. Fuel quantity per race for prototypes is to be cut from 21 liters to 20. Use of a standard ECU and data logger will be mandatory. Prototype manufacturers may use their own software, but others (teams running either the production-based CRT bikes or the new production racers) must use spec software.

Well, gosh, that seems definite enough. After much back-and-forthing over whether everyone must use spec software, a decision at last!

Not quite. The section in the handout ended with this statement: “The above regulation changes are subject to the satisfactory conclusion of ongoing negotiations...” This allows anything to be, as they say, “subject to change without notice.”

Oh, one more provision: “Engines are frozen for all races of the same season.” That means no physical engine development during the racing season, only software changes.

This is just part of the continuing worldwide reaction to the development of motorcycle electronics. It must be too expensive! It must be unfair! It takes control away from the rider! As always, officialdom needs time to adapt to change and must appear to exert control.

I am particularly interested in the further five-percent reduction in fuel volume. Some say it was made by the MSMA (Motorcycle Sports Manufacturers Association) to provide themselves an additional challenge. But if you sniff around the paddock, you learn that “decisions” made by the MSMA, which currently consists of Flonda, Yamaha and Ducati, are, in fact, Honda’s decisions. Seen in that light, the fivepercent reduction represents Honda’s confidence it can finish races on 20 liters and that company’s challenge to the others to do as well.

Well, aren’t we all passengers on Planet Earth, sharing limited resources that must be used responsibly? Won’t this rule force manufacturers to create fuel-saving technologies for cleaner air and reduced global warming?

Nope. Finishing races on reduced fuel is almost completely irrelevant to production motorcycles. The reason is that the mixture burned by production bikes is fixed at chemically correct by their use of automotive three-way exhaust catalysts. Yes, racebikes can be made to run on leaner-than-correct mixtures at part throttle as a means of saving a bit of fuel. Because such leaner mixtures burn more slowly, the ignition timing must be advanced to maximize torque. That is irrelevant to production bikes because their catalyst systems require a correct mixture.

Really? Then how can production motorcycles save fuel? They can save fuel by using less power (fuel use is proportional to power use), turning fewer revs (engine friction quadruples when rpm doubles) and by having less displacement. Why churn 200 horsepower worth of bearings and pistonring swept area as you cruise up the freeway on your 1300, making just the 25 hp needed to keep up with traffic?

The easy way to say all that is NC700X. It’s called smaller, lower-revving, lowerhorsepower motorcycles. And Honda is already making NC700X.

In fact, it will cost Honda, Yamaha and Ducati millions of extra R&D dollars to finish races on 20 liters of fuel. Honda can afford it, but it will be less easy for the others. This flies in the face of the constant whining to cut the cost of racing.

Fuel conservation at present in MotoGP is not advanced technology but is just the “dodges” that racers always use to beat such rules. I learned at the last race of the year in Valencia, Spain, that the teams carry large freezers with which to cool and shrink their gasoline so that more will fit into the regulation volume. Yes, there’s a rule against this, but no one seems to have seen any enforcement. Why not? Maybe because, were the rule enforced, the result would be many more bikes failing to finish— just as Cal Crutchlow did at Motegi. That is an economy run, not racing.

Formula 1 teams also increased fuel density by using blends rich in heavy aromatic compounds, such as toluene, then passed the fuel through heaters to ensure it evaporated fully before combustion. Hohum, tell me about it. Snowmobiles had heated carburetor floatbowls for the same reason years ago. Surely the fuels provided to the MSMA by their contracted suppliers use similar dodges. It’s technology, yes, but nothing you’ll ever see at the gas pump.

Other ways to cut fuel consumption, aside from leaner mixtures? A biggie, allowing downsizing of production auto engines, is Gasoline Direct Injection, made illegal in MotoGP by a fuelpressure limit. Yes, GDI cannot currently operate to the highest rpm in MotoGP, but might it contribute in a dual-mode injection system?

Twenty years ago, cuts in oil viscosity to reduce friction forced manufacturers to improve the smoothness of crankshaft journals. That’s why today’s production bikes call for such low-viscosity oils. Bearings can be downsized, and one manufacturer of widely sold V-Fours did so until parts broke.

Some heavy truck engines now have electric water pumps that supply only the coolant flow needed—no more wasting power with fixed-ratio drives. New cars have variable-delivery-volume oil pumps for the same reason. Narrower piston rings? They’ve been a trend for years. Higher compression ratios to boost efficiency? Compression in MotoGP is already so high that it slows combustion. Faster combustion? The higher compression is pushed in the interest of higher torque and fuel efficiency, the less room there is for the turbulence that speeds combustion. Greater use of lower rpm? That could save fuel as it does in car engines with turbochargers, but they are illegal in MotoGP.

How about boosting coolant temperature to reduce combustion chamber heat loss? Ducati has been doing it for years.

Here’s the Big One: Wheelspin and sliding are highly inefficient. Using engine power to grind up rubber eats fuel. But wait! Making MotoGP into an economy run means having to ride nose-to-tail, without spinning or sliding—the very thing that makes spectators complain that MotoGP has become a boring procession.

Let’s stop the economy charade and get back to racing.