Posted by Nick Trott at 3:00PM on Monday 14 April, 2008 1 Comment
I just had to share this - it's Kawasaki's new 'screamer' MotoGP engine.
Shown here testing at the end of March in Jerez, the new engine blows a big raspberry in the face of Masao Furusawa, Yamaha's general manager of Engineering Operations.
Furusawa said to Crash.net in February 'we will never use a screamer engine again. Never! We threw away the screamer engine in 2003.'
Kawasaki's technical manager Naoya Kaneko does not agree, which has resulted in a fascinating engineering battle of the type F1 could really do with at the moment.
Yamaha's Furusawa is convinced that the 'big-bang', uneven-firing four-cylinder engine is the ultimate configuration for a modern MotoGP bike, whereas Kaneko believes a high-revving, even-firing four-cylinder is best.
The uneven firing order of a 'big-bang' engine means it delivers its power in pulses. This power delivery, according to Yamaha, is kinder on the rear tyre and allows the rider to judge the grip level with a greater degree of accuracy.
Says Furusawa: 'The rider needs to listen carefully to the tyre and talk to it directly with the throttle, but the screamer engine makes it really hard to "hear". So the connection between throttle and tyre is not good with the screamer'.
However, Kawasaki's Kaneko believes that modern electronics and tyre technology can overcome the screamer's disadvantages. 'Taming the [screamer's] power delivery has become easier through the use of more refined electronic systems on the bike. These factors mean that it is now feasible to extract the advantages from a screamer engine, such as the increased power, while overcoming the disadvantages through tyres and electronics.'
The advantages of a screamer engine are higher revs, more power and fewer vibrations.
And, of course, that it sounds completely and utterly berserk.
Nick Trott
1 Comment for "Kawasaki's screamer"
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Both have their advantages and disadvantages. Stoner won last year on a screamer. Previous years the big-bangers won.
Riding a bike is all about feel. Feel comes more from mechanical grip than electronic grip, IMHO. That's why I think the big-bang theory would seem more sensible.
Look at the Ducati squad. Only Stoner seems to be able to ride the thing. Marco Melandri, the other factory rider is languishing at the bottom of the timesheets. The two satellite riders aren't that fast either.
Stoner won the title last year because of balls, not talent. He has the guts to trust traction control (still in its infancy in motorcycle racing) and ride the way he does with the red Ducati squirming all over the place.
On a side note, these bike's really are awesome machines. They post those kinds of lap times with pure mechanical/electronic grip and hardly any downforce in the corners. If you removed the aero aids from a F1 car's bodywork, I think their laptimes would be similar.