Moto 3

Anything to do with motorcyles
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MickeyMoto
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Joined: 22 Nov 2008 17:41
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Moto 3

Post by MickeyMoto »

Just watched the Texas Moto 3 race. It is exciting stuff.

At the end it gave the max speed of the winner as 227km/h (140 (empeeaithch)- didn't the 1960s Morini racer go nearly that fast? I think these new singles are giving a bit more power, but made me think if we have come far in engine development terms in smaller 4 strokes.
morinipete
Posts: 166
Joined: 03 Jun 2007 08:45
Location: Rugby, UK

Re: Moto 3

Post by morinipete »

You're not wrong. Though you always have to be cautious with factory claims. In 1968, the last year they competed domestically, Moto Morini were claiming 40hp for their 3 valve 250 (they'd found 4 valves and desmos gave no advantage). Prior to the 2012 season Honda were claiming 48hp for their new Moto3 bike.

That means it took Honda 44 years to find 8hp, or about 2hp a decade ! Not so impressive indeed................Mind you it's on a par with their efforts with the NR500. It took them an eternity and tens of millions of pounds to develop a bike which in performance terms just about matched the air-cooled 500 MV Augusta of a decade earlier. Well it never matched it actually, as it rarely held together longer than the pit lane. Hammers and nuts spring to mind.

Pete
PS. On top speeds it's not so simple though. They'll never allow fast circuits like they used to have in the 1960s (Hockenheim, Spa, etc) again. No one has ever got near Barry Sheene's lap at Spa of 137mph (even the Ulster GP circuit record is about 133mph I think ?). They don't like bends anymore, it's all 'corners'. If you gave Dorna a football it would come back looking like a Rubik's cube.
EVguru
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Re: Moto 3

Post by EVguru »

If you chose to take a very simplistic view looking only at peak power, then there doesn't seem to have been much improvement.

Bear in mind that you don't know if it's crankshaft or sprocket hp being quoted and that the correction factors used have changed over the years. Measured power is affected by barometric pressure, air temperature and humidity and quoted figures are almost always 'corrected' figures.

If you were to look at the torque curve (acceleration is entirely about torque) then the modern engine may have two to three times the area under the curve.
Paul Compton
http://www.morini-mania.co.uk
http://www.youtube.com/user/EVguru
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