WSBK Parity issues?

[Mental Trousers]

Basically the twins will carry slightly more weight, have air restrictors and use standard conrods. So it'll be interesting to see how they go. Increased valve area is useless if air restrictors prevent that area from being used effectively. Standard conrods will mean Ducati will have to put higher spec units in road bikes. There's plenty of other implications in all of this too.

[denill]

all relative,
one year they would whine, next year they would win.

Yeah, it just depends if they win or not.

[slowpoke]

errr....not always the case dude....depends on how the bikes was designed areo dynamically...do a camparo to the original busa and a K3 thou...busa had high top speed...with a bucket load more frontal area...k3 accelerated faster and had more horse power....

anyway...but for the most part you are probally right about the frontal area...but I bet theres F' all in it power wise!

Aaaah fuggit, just when I thought I had it sorted, ya slippery bugger!

[denill]

Hey slowpoke, I see where you are coming from. But the Duc looked pretty strong in the speed department Sunday night, even if it is expensive to run. Gaz.

Yeah Gav. It may be expensive - but methinks they would spend as much in '08 anyhow. Any how they held the right cards when they said "Play our game, or else". SBK NEEDS Ducati. imagine SBK without them???

[imdying]

Why? They are the only manufacturer to fully support the series from go to whoa. Their resources are a drop in the ocean compared to the Japanese juggernaut.

The keel is soon to be even when valve areas are similar and costs are similar. At present Ducati (and anybody else who chooses to run a twin) are competing at a massive cost and horsepower disadvantage.

Ducati want it changed so they don't have to run massive dollar motors to be competitive right...? Wonder how long it'll be before they start spending big dollars on their bigger motors... I don't trust them (factory racing teams), they'll abuse any leeway they're given.

[Pwalo]

From the commentary in race 2 it appears that Ducati haven't produced enough 1098s in 'race spec' (1200) to homologate the new bike yet.

Perhaps there'll be a (mini)flood on the market later in this year/early next year.

I think the basic problem is that no V Twin is ever going to be as quick as an inline four, at anything like a similar state of tune. WSB is in a quandry because the fastest (lap times rather than outright speed, anyway), and at the moment best handling bikes are the Japanese fours. The only way to have a performance parity at liveable costs is for the twins to have a capacity increase.

As long as everyone realises that this is a fudge to let the Ducatis remain competitive that's fine. Just don't expect the Japanese manufacturers to be too happy to see their competitors taking advantage of a capacity hike to sell their bikes.

[vifferman]

From the commentary in race 2 it appears that Ducati haven't produced enough 1098s in 'race spec' (1200) to homologate the new bike yet.

Back when Aaron Slight was in WSB, Ducati had a much lower homologation number requirement than any of the other manufacturers, so I wouldn't be surprised if they don't still have a low number to meet, even though their sales are much much higher now than in the 80's and early 90s.

Another interesting thing - the Ducatis of that time had to have a new crankcase for every meeting, as the twins tuned to the level of power needed to be competitive wreaked havoc on the longevity of the cases. (FWIW, a VTR1000's cases can't cope with much more than 125hp before grenading).

[Cajun]

interesting about the 3 cylinders, being 1000cc instead of say 1050 or 1100, so in turn benelli or triumph could put there production bikes in there,

[SPman]

Likewise with a V16 (but they have to build a minimum of 500 of them).

As of 2009, (I think), they have to build 3000 of em.....

[avgas]

interesting about the 3 cylinders, being 1000cc instead of say 1050 or 1100, so in turn benelli or triumph could put there production bikes in there,

955 fits in fine though

[Cajun]

955 fits in fine though

don't use the 955 motor any more its 1050. but saying that they don't really make a sports model with fairing in that size any more either.

[limbimtimwim]

remeber when it was 750 IL4's against 1000 cc twins? What happened there?

John Kocinski won..?

Just noticed his RVF has more ground clearance at the rear than mine, hmm. And a dual sided swing arm.

[idb]

Why don't Ducati just drop the V-twin? If it can not compete on a even keel with the in-line fours then THEY should change!

Hmmm...all the other manufacturers already make V-twins so maybe they should be racing them instead.

[Cajun]

John Kocinski won..?
Just noticed his RVF has more ground clearance at the rear than mine, hmm. And a dual sided swing arm.

and maybe an extra 350 ccs, among other things.

[idb]

I can see the logic behind this decision, but being a pesimist I think we'll see Ducati's stomping all over the others next year.

I realise it was a loooooooong time ago, but back when Ducati won their first WSBK crown, how big was the engine? 851cc (unless they bored it out to 1000cc...did they? I don't know). If the 851 WAS an 851, then way back then they obviously weren't too worried about costs.

I hope it all works out. Maybe it really is just a case of trying to match the production version with the production IL4's, and keeping the race version closer to the one you can acutally buy.

They were 888cc Tony