World Superbikes & Aprilia

[Fox]

Anyone heard any news / gossip about Aprilia in WSBK next year?

[ZeroTwoRSV]

Unofficial, speculative word says

"Something Wicked This Way Comes In 2006 - 2007"

Let's hope so. Apparantly it would be a losing battle now as the stock Japanese bikes run 170 hp out of the crates, and the Aprilias might make that with mods. Depressing for racing.

My guess is a 195 hp triple for 2006, derived from the GP effort, but without the silly tech stuff.

[Fox]

Damn, it's always "Next year"! But you're right, it'll be all over for the twins with the de-restrictions as the British Superbikes forecast:

1
John Reynolds
Suzuki
446

2
Michael Rutter
Honda
417

3
Yukio Kagayama
Suzuki

335

4
Scott Smart
Kawasaki
330

5
Sean Emmett
Ducati
315

[OZSLR]

Fox,

At the final round of the Oz Supers this year, I was chatting with Jim Caruso from JSG, and the comment made was development was underway on for a bike to run in 2006 SBK.

Don't know how how rubbery that is, but I tend to think it would be difficult to run the V60 up against the 4's. Unless they are playing around with other configurations.

Cheers,

[Steve / AF1 Racing]

Ducati has done just fine this year with the testastretta based engines, but it was obvious by way of the performance of Chris Vermuellen and the h*nda that the I4s, restricted or not, are currently way more powerful.

I think that V-twins are again facing something of a racing extinction. The overall advancement of I4 motors in the years since the introduction of the 01 GSXR 1000 have really made it difficult for V-twins to keep up. But I do believe that there are probably at least 3 to 4 good competitive seasons left for the V-twin based bikes before the gap between them and the I4s becomes insurmountable.

My personal hope is that MV Augusta's F4 Mille racing program can come on line and do some damage, and in the longer run, I think that the desmosedici superbikes and their V-4 configurations may direct the future of production superbikes.

-Steve

[falco03]

that's really a shame that twins are looking at the short list of extinct engines. they really add a certain flavor to the mix. i hated it when certain "concessions" were made to make them more competitive on the track, but it's the reality, i guess.
i certainly don't want them to fade from racing altogether.

[Ricky J]

One of the real attractions of World Superbike was their soundtrack! Booming kettledrum twins, screaming fours, an occasional triple ripping the silk. Real entertainment not just for the eyes but your ears too!

SBK isn't a formula series so handicapping of the various engine layouts is required to keep the show interesting but the organizers have been historically slow to re-examine and adjust the balance when things got lopsided. After many years of outright favoring the twins to mainly benefit Ducati now the pendulum has been deliberately swung towards liter fours to attract the Japanese back into it. Hopefully the twin cylinder machines' competitiveness will be carefully monitored to keep their makers (and fans!) engaged. My hunch is that it will be, so long as companies want to build and race them, especially Italian ones for after all it is the Flammini Bothers' native tongue!

But World Superbike organizers must be walking a little more of a tightrope these days because they are no longer the sole- or premier- international series for big four-strokes. They need to be careful with their Draconian edicts, take-it-or-leave-it isn't so effective when there's somewhere else to go!

[Fox]

Yes it's funny, the last 2 years we (well, me anyway) have been whining about 'The Ducati Cup' and now it's gonna be the 'Tokyo Express'

[Ricky J]

There is a mathematical formula for determining their return to SBK date. It is simple too, X + 1 where X = next year. In 2003 it was 2005, now it is 2006.

So close but yet so far!

[Fox]

Originally posted by Ricky J
There is a mathematical formula for determining their return to SBK date. It is simple too, X + 1 where X = next year. In 2003 it was 2005, now it is 2006.

So close but yet so far!

Hehehe - good one Ricky