....now reduced to a circus based around a selfish Italian poof, upon whose continued involvement the whole movement is dependent.
Ain't that the truth.
On the surface the proposed formula seems a bit daft, but with the 81mm max bore size(min stroke 48.5), max 4 cylinders, the 6 engines per year and spec tyre, underneath lies a tricky technical challenge(bore limits revs, tyre limits HP and 6 engines limits making 300km engines). Max bore will rule out ultra short stroke high reving engines, safe mean piston speeds of around 25m/s will have a rev ceiling of 14,000 and pushing the envelope 29 m/s 15,700 or so. Want to push the boundries you run the risk of having to cop a penalty for an engine swap.The low rev ceiling will not make pneumatic valves necessary when steel and Ti will do perfectly. The max bore rule side steps WSBK's legal threats as none of the current 1000cc road bikes have 81 X 48.5 configuration only the BMW with an 80mm bore comes close.So a production engine case could be used but with alterations to bore and stroke.
The engine should be fairly torquy and not so reliant on gps/gyro maps(but they will have them anyway) and should restore the tyre smoking action of the past, overtaking should be easier too.
Manfacturers will go for it as this is a good way to justify R&D budgets, more HP longer lasting components.The engineers will have to find new materials and coatings to gain the extra 1000rpm that will make the difference. Sadly only factories will have that sort of budget, so expect more of the same.
Will be interesting to see who gets on top of it first, I say Ducati will. No doubt the simulators are running and Solidworks models are on the go...................
