Will 800cc Really be Safer

[R1 Biker]

Will 800cc Really be Safer

In 2007, when the MotoGP rules require engine capacity to fall from the current 990cc to 800cc, will this really make the bikes slower? Will it really make MotoGP racing safer?

Currently, there are two basic components that make a great MotoGP engine. These are power and power delivery. A powerful bike is nothing unless it delivers that power in a way that is usable by the racer. The MotoGP manufacturers spend as much, or more, time developing a smooth, usable power delivery as they do developing peak horsepower.

When the allowable engine capacity drops to 800cc in 2007, the power race will start over again in MotoGP. As they did with the 990cc engines, manufacturers will struggle to balance peak horsepower with usable delivery, and some of the manufacturers will undoubtedly struggle with peaky, dangerous powerbands early on (just as they did with 990cc). This time, however, this struggle will be even more difficult.

Smaller pistons and higher rev ceilings, could well make the power delivery of these new bikes very violent. If one manufacturer is able to achieve a very high peak horsepower, and conquer the power delivery problem, other manufacturers will do everything they can to achieve competitive horsepower, but this may come at the expense of smooth powerbands, at first. A high revving, peaky engine will be extremely difficult to control. Sort of like a 500cc two-stroke. Remember those?

For those of you sitting at home thinking 800cc bikes will definitely be slower, think about this. There are Japanese engineers burning the midnight oil with one goal in mind. That is, build a somewhat smaller (roughly 20% smaller) higher revving MotoGP engine that makes just as much power as the current bikes do. They have plenty of money and have had roughly two years to make it happen. If one of those manufacturers hits the ground running in 2007, with the right engine package, the performance differential between the top tier of MotoGP and everyone else will be significantly greater than it is today, and the other manufacturers will be desperate to catch up. The fact that tires will be less of a limiting factor at 800cc will only make the engine component that much more important.

Source: www.motogp.com

[Chubien]

I guess the idea is to prevent the current 990cc bikes from making 280hp or more in 2007. The current bikes are fast enough and by downsizing the engines to 800cc in ensures that bikes in 2007 will have the same or less horsepower than the current 990cc bikes have. In 2009 they will limit them to less perhaps ...
That's like F1 cars, todays smaller non-turbo engines make as much horsepower as they did in the turbo days, they restrict them on tire size and tire type, but yet todays F1 cars are as fast or faster than they ever were.
Same goes for GP bikes, will it slow them down compared to this years generation of bikes ? I don't think so. But will it slow the bikes down compared to leaving regulation in 2007 at 990cc ... for sure.

[HRC-E.B.]

There is a logical argument to be made in support of an allegation that:

1) A smaller capacity will require a higher state of tune of the engines, resulting in higher peak outputs but at the expense of low-end torque and driveabilitiy, all this in order to keep the high top speeds needed on fast circuits, which will result in the bikes being more difficult to ride and more dangerous (remember the old "on-off" 500cc two-strokes...

2) Imposing this new design/build requirement on the manufacturers will inevitably favour the biggest and wealthiest manufacturers (read: Honda), who have the resources and financial means to develop an brand new engine package, test it, refine it, modify it, etc.

Seems to me that, just like the spec tire has equalized World Superbike racing to a significant extent, maybe something along the lines of imposing air restrictors on the bikes' intakes (like they do in car racing, where different classes of engines compete against one another) might have been a better way of limiting peak output of the engines, forcing manufacturers to concentrate on engine flexibility and driveability instead???

It sure would have had the advantage of being far les costly to manufacturers, and thus would have contributed in "leveling the playing field"...

My two cents worth...

[Chubien]

Envoyé par HRC-E.B.

maybe something along the lines of imposing air restrictors on the bikes' intakes (like they do in car racing, where different classes of engines compete against one another) might have been a better way of limiting peak output of the engines, forcing manufacturers to concentrate on engine flexibility and driveability instead???

It sure would have had the advantage of being far les costly to manufacturers, and thus would have contributed in "leveling the playing field"...

My two cents worth...

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