Daytona Tech
DAYTONA TECH
KEVIN CAMERON
BEHIND THE SCENES OF THE GREAT AMERICAN RACE
THIS YEAR'S DAYTONA WAS A CONTEST BETWEEN OLD but highly developed designs, and new but unrealized possibilities. Rob Muzzy noted that Kawasaki's design is now four years old—the class graybeard now that Honda has at last retired its RC30 in favor of its fresh RC45. But there's a difference between maturity and obsolescence. Scott Russell won the race with authority on his Muzzy Kawasaki, but Polen had
to struggle and slide to bring his RC45 home fourth.
In speaking of performance potential, Muzzy said, “Right now, it’s friction we’re up against. Our engine can tum a thousand revs above its power peak, but we can’t get it to make power up there.”
A response to this can be seen in the RC45, which has only three main bearings and the very minimum of gears in its camdrives. Or it can be seen in the low-viscosity oil (could it be as low as 5w-40?) being used in the Kawasakis. The trick is to work plain bearings almost to the point of failure, for there lies their point of greatest efficiency-wnere the minimum area of sheared oil film carries the greatest possible load.
Muzzy alluded to “slight combustion-chamber changes” and some minor chassis stiffening as the sum of recent development to the ZX. Wise men don’t gamble at Daytona, and Muzzy is wise.
I asked Eraldo Ferracci about his new 955 Ducati. He built the bigger engine to allow a reduction in rpm, to reduce internal stress. Does it still have ball main bearings? (A plainbearing crank and cases have been tested.) He answered yes. Any trouble with them? “A little bit.” This probably means that with the big engine, the current reinforced cases are so heavily loaded that frequent replacement has been necessary to avoid cracking around the bearing bosses.
If this were all-out four-stroke GP racing, there would be little problem; just make improved cases. But crankcases are on the list of major castings that must by rule be “the same as on the approved model.” New cases mean a new homologation.
And that means paperwork equal in weight to the team seeking the approval. Ferracci wasn’t afraid of that-he was the driving force behind the 955, doing the prototype work and shuttling back and forth to Italy to get the necessary 50 kits produced, then plowing through the associated politicking. This man is not only a demon of incessant energy-a necessity in this business-but he also produces an incredible volume of defect-free customer work in addition to winning world and national titles.
Ferracci’s riders Troy Corser (Australian Superbike champ) and Pascal Picotte (whose bike tossed its chain on lap 23, while he was close to the front) nearly
ate Daytona up. They won both 50-mile qualifiers between them, with Picotte on the pole, while Corser dominated the 200 before the red flag on lap 31, and was a close second to Russell at the end.
Another energy demon is John Britten, whose VI000 in the hands of Andrew Stroud finally won this year’s Daytona Twins race (now administered somewhat controversially under the AHRMA vintage umbrella). For those not familiar with the V 1000, Britten and his New Zealand crew have engineered and built the following from raw materials: engine, carbon-fiber chassis and swingarm, fuel-injection system, carbon-fiber wheels, non-telescopic front suspen sion. Now he is series-producing these machines, and has
;ii;~;;'~~;' ;;gj;: cylinder bike of novel design which may be built and shown in the next 12-18 months. He finances all this action through his other life in architecture and real estate development. And on the seventh day he rests. Suzuki remains in transi tion. The liquid-cooled inlineFour that replaced the original air/oil-cooled design two years ago has yet to find its legs, despite good perfor mances in Europe. Over 95 percent of the material prepa ration is direct from Suzuki, and the bikes no longer cany the Yoshimura imprint, yet both groups retain influence.
Suzuki's 500 GP bike is world champion, built on a twin-beam chassis, but the Superbike remains as a possibly more flexible twin-loop design. Factory riders Donald Jacks, Akira Yanagawa, Thomas Stevens and Tom Kipp did well enough in their qualifying heats-third, fifth, fourth and seventh-but in the race best results were Stevens in eighth, and Kipp, 19th. A long heritage of narrow power is hard to overcome. The old Yoshimura strategy was to build peak power, then find a magic rider who could make it win. Magic is hard to find, but Suzuki does have a body of solid riding talent now, and must build a ridable bike for them. Yoshimura strategy was to build peak power, then find a magic rider who could make it win. Magic is hard to find, but Suzuki does have a body of solid riding talent now, and must build a ridable bike for them.
Honda's RC45 may be a case in point. Newly signed Doug Polen, winner of both AMA and World Superbike titles, started on the front row after qualifying fourth quickest, but was barely able to hold onto the leading pair of Corser and Lawson in the 200's early laps. He then slowly slid back down the field, but finished fourth. This suggests a machine eating its own tires as the price of going really fast-not unlikely in a new design. Honda’s RC45 may be a case in point. Newly signed Doug Polen, winner of both AMA and World Superbike titles, started on the front row after qualifying fourth quickest, but was barely able to hold onto the leading pair of Corser and Lawson in the 200’s early laps. He then slowly slid back down the field, but finished fourth. This suggests a machine eating its own tires as the price of going really fast-not unlikely in a new design.
Honda's fuel injection is immediately apparent when the machine is started. It fires at once and settles into a docile idle, with none of the temperament of a cold race engine. The flip side of this is that Polen's World Superbike mechanics, fresh from testing at Philip Island in Australia, seemed to have tuning information not available to the U.S. side of the team, backing riders Mike Smith and Kevin Magee, who qualified seventh and 17th. Smith would finish seventh, Magee ninth. Ah, the joys of internal politics. There were Honda’s fuel injection is immediately apparent when the machine is started. It fires at once and settles into a docile idle, with none of the temperament of a cold race engine. The flip side of this is that Polen’s World Superbike mechanics, fresh from testing at Philip Island in Australia, seemed to have tuning information not available to the U.S. side of the team, backing riders Mike Smith and Kevin Magee, who qualified seventh and 17th. Smith would finish seventh, Magee ninth. Ah, the joys of internal politics. There were plenty of HRC shirt-wearers keeping to themselves in a room adjoining the team’s main garage, closely observed by a grim-faced Mr. Oguma, head of Honda racing.
Despite its new, right-side camdrive gears, the RC45 continues the tradition of making the famous RC30 rock-crusher noise at idle, caused by torque reversals in the drives, clacking the gear clearances back and forth. The Suzuki, Yamaha and Kawasaki don’t sound this way because their tensioned chain-cam drives have no backlash.
Yamaha won this race a year ago, but didn’t show the sparkle necessary to repeat. Lawson’s straight-from-the-factory bike, in red-and-white non-V&H paint scheme, was fast (the speed gun said 174) but had no edge. He was in drafting contention with Corser until his first gas stop, slowed by a blistered front tire. After the red flag, Lawson’s setup
seemed slightly inferior to the others. Like the pro he is, Lawson was positioned to exploit anything chance might hand him in the final laps, but had to settle for third. Jamie James, overcoming a weaving bike that threw his feet right off the pegs past Start-Finish on lap 18, made a courageous and well-judged ride into fifth.
The maturity of Kawasaki’s four-year-old design was important in Russell’s win. The mechanical durability that endures the 200 is not something whipped up overnight. Rob Muzzy explained why the ZX Superbike’s valves are not
lightweight, fashionable titanium, but are still steel (with inconel exhausts new this year). The tantalizing advantage of titanium, he said, is the possibility of using lighter springs, through which reduced friction might be had. But in tests, titanium valves with light springs scrubbed about on their seats so that clearances could not be maintained. More seat pressure cured this problem-the same pressure as used with steel. So they use durable steel instead of tricky, expensive titanium.
Harley made it to Daytona with its new VR V-Twin Superbike, and though the team’s practice and race were marked by blow-ups and chronic lack of top-end power, Miguel DuHamel showed that the machine has outstanding brakes, infield maneuverability and acceleration. This program has aroused more fresh interest than any other. Ducati’s Eraldo Ferracci affably strolled into the Harley garage to personally congratulate team manager Steve Scheibe on being there. “This bike, it’s a baby now, but it will grow,” he said.
The machine wore its new styling department seat/tank and fairing, and looked very ’60s, almost like an overgrown 250 Sprint. This is no handicap, for the “fairings” of other brands make better billboards (count those stickers!) than streamlining. Don Vesco, ex-roadracer and Bonneville streamliner king, described recently riding a power-laden Yosh bike to 180 mph, saying that he could feel it “run into a wall” as it neared its top speed. At present, racebikes are
held back by 1958 FIM streamlining rules that made sense then, but don’t now, when efficiency is a major vehicular goal. But racebikes remain crude pistons, crammed through the protesting air at respectable speeds only by stuffing them with so much power that it takes a wall of radiators to cool the engine.
Alternatives exist, explored only by rational investigators like John Britten and James Parker of RADD fame, who have nothing to lose by their innovation. Factories-except for the smallest ones-prefer conservative technologies, like elderly men who keep their money in tax-free municipal bonds.
The 250 class shows that bikes don’t have to be locomotives to be fast. This year’s race had three brands in the top four-expected winner Jimmy Filice and second-place man Rich Oliver on Yamahas, third finisher Michael Barnes on a new Honda RS250, and fourth man Chris D’Aluisio on a 1994 disc-valve Aprilia. Their sophisticated two-stroke engines, each with two lawnmower putt-putt-sized cylinders, now give 85-95 horsepower. This, with the 210-235 pound weights of the bikes, translates to hard acceleration, quick-flick maneuverability, and a 155-mph-plus top speed.
Although Daytona alternates every five years or so between being a giant club race and a factory battleground, it now shows healthy signs of turning into a kind of Western Hemisphere Suzuka, to which the factories may again commit their full resources-not watereddown “kit” bikes somewhere in the limbo between stock and state-of-theart. It’s time for local restaurants to again deploy their Japanese-language menus for Bike Week. Both Honda and Kawasaki brought their elaborate air jacks, and Yamaha brought a chassis for Lawson that was like nothing ever seen in a showroom. Privateers may with some justice grumble, but splashy, cost-no-object factory drama may be just the ticket to get this sport properly launched on the fickle seas of television. Hang on and see. □
