Honda Production MOTOGP racer first look

[kevin 714]

Honda Press release
Honda completes successful test of new production model for MotoGP at Motegi Circuit

Honda will unveil an entirely new production model machine for the 2014 FIM Road Racing World Championship, Grand Prix MotoGP class by the end of 2013. The new model will enable entrants to race in MotoGP at lower cost starting from next season.

Development of the model is currently slightly behind schedule but Honda Racing Corporation (HRC), with its test rider, managed to successfully test the prototype at the Twin Ring Motegi circuit. The test took place from May 23rd through 24th, 2013.

By conforming to 2014 MotoGP technical and sporting regulations, Honda intends to finalise the development and to announce the introduction of the model by the end of this year.

“The test results - comments Shuhei Nakamoto, Executive Vice President of HRC – showed more than what we had expected, in particular, with its running performance. We are very pleased at this stage and we will announce more in the not too distant future.”

http://www.motomatters.com/news/2013/05/27/honda_releases_first_image_of_production.html


The first full public outing of Honda's MotoGP production racer is expected at the tests at the Valencia races, Honda having encountered some delays in the production of the machine. In an interview with the official MotoGP.com website, Nakamoto confirmed several details about the machine, which he had previously discussed at the Sepang tests earlier in the year. Honda's production racer - which remains nameless at this moment - will run an engine similar in design to Honda's RC213V machine, but missing a few crucial parts. The bike will use conventional valve springs rather than pneumatic valves, run a conventional gearbox instead of Honda's seamless transmission, and make use of the allowance of 24 liters of fuel. The bike will feature Nissin brakes, and Showa suspension. As the bikes are to be sold rather than leased, teams will of course be replace the suspension and brakes if they so wish.

The price for the bike is expected to be around 1 million euros. HRC will also sell an upgrade kit for the bike for 500,000 euros, which will be available in the second year to bring the bike up to the matching spec. HRC have said they are prepared to build and sell five of these production machines.

 

[sidewazzz]

Had to post the most non detaiped photo of the damn thing jajajaj a

 

[kevin 714]

front end looks a lot like a cbr1000rr

 

[mototireguy]

Only 1 million euros!

 

[kevin 714]

what I also find interesting is that not only can you own it directly, instead of leasing, they will sell an upgrade kit the following year, so the bike will have improvements scheduled as well. thats a great asset to a team. they OWN the bike, so they have a tangible asset (if they want to sell it to run another bike or switch series etc) and that asset wont be out of date fast.

the ownership of CRTS will come into play. if NGM wants to fun the yamah lease bikes like they said, they can sell their current FTR bikes to a new team that may want to enter on the cheap. that also makes th enew bike more affordable if they can sel them, since they wont be starting from scratch. avinta blusens runs the same bike, and has already said theyre probably keeping those bikes. hell they could run a third bike if NGM wants to sell theirs. if aspar decides to run these hondas, they could seel the very good bikes they already have to help with that...

a true era of privateers seems to be emerging here.

 

[budman]

Good to see. Hope it is competitive. For the money it should be.

 

[Zerox]

Had to post the most non detaiped photo of the damn thing jajajaj a

Dude...it's #37. What more do you need to know?

 

[Hooli]

front end looks a lot like a cbr1000rr

In that vein, does it burn oil?

 

[RaptorFA]

I have to admit I have mixed feelings about this. Even though they will be a cut above any of the current privateer equipment on the grid now, they still will have no shot to challenge the front; HRC will see to that. Yamaha as well with their lease package.

So what you will have in effect will be an evolution from a three-tier grid to a four-tier grid; Factory prototypes, satellites, Proddy racers/Lease packages and current privateer bikes. The net effect being that you will still have only 4 bikes fighting for the win, maybe more if Ducati can step it up and Suzuki comes in and pulls a Rabbit out of their ass! However, I do expect the racing over-all to be better from the front four back, so that is something good. And it will open up more seats to other riders to ride competitive equipment.

Until the HRC stranglehold is broken, it will forever be just another flavor of business as usual.

 

[Zerox]

The net effect being that you will still have only 4 bikes fighting for the win

That's because the top 4 guys are better than everyone else.

 

[Spec-ECU]

CRT, leased engines, production racers - they were never about winning. They're just to fill the grid, and a relatively cheaper way to do so.

 

[RaptorFA]

That's because the top 4 guys are better than everyone else.

I still want to see Jorge swap rides with Aleix for a test and see what's what. Never gonna happen of course, but I would still love to see that. :teeth

 

[RaptorFA]

CRT, leased engines, production racers - they were never about winning. They're just to fill the grid, and a relatively cheaper way to do so.

And you don't see a problem with that? We have had vastly inferior Privateer machines filling the grid for 2 seasons now. The quality of the racing has not improved to the level it needs to. Granted the bikes have imnproved, but not near enough. They just don't have the check books to compete in this current environment.

It really doesn't matter if you have 23 or even 30 "decent" machines on the grid - the bottom line is that HRC and Yam have stacked the deck so that only 4 will contend for the win. By a large margin at that. It's getting old. The proddy bikes won't have access to the software that the factory bikes have, so they will never be able to challenge. Losing by 12 seconds instead of 20 is no big revelation. And frankly it's a bit cowardly on their part. How can they say they are the best if they are just chopping everyone else's knees off to serve their own agenda to maintain supremacy?

If Ezpaleta doesn't stand up and say "enough", the series will lose relevence and could eventually die. If that means Honda gets mad and goes away, so be it.

Am I saying go to spec racing? Certainly not. But you cannot deny that the Moto2 formula is providing much better racing. Even SBK was until they started going over the top.

 

[clutchslip]

Only 1 million euros!

That's the base package. You want air, and cruise control, and stuff, you're talking serious Honda bucks.

And you don't see a problem with that? We have had vastly inferior Privateer machines filling the grid for 2 seasons now....

the bottom line is that HRC and Yam have stacked the deck so that only 4 will contend for the win.....

I always have a problem with this. I am okay watching 12 bikes race that have a chance, BUT apparently the general public feels differently, even in these threads. And they want more bikes. :dunno

HRC and Yam stack the deck against Ducati? They stacked the deck against Suzuki, and that is why Suzuki left? I don't think so. And I also think that Yamaha would be just fine if Crutchlow took the championship. Repsol/Honda may not be comfortable with a satellite winning, but that is only because REPSOL is on the side of the "factory" bike. The Yamaha bikes say "YAMAHA", and unless you live under a HD Fat Boy, you probably know that Tech Three is a Yamaha house. Lots of ways to sell motorcycles and other junk, and that is ALL that this racing is about.

 

[DaveT319]

I'm with clutchslip, why is it better to have a grid of 24 bikes where only a handful really have any chance at winning, than to have maybe 10 of the best riders on 10 almost equally great bikes? Why is quantity over quality better for the sport? I'm fine with smaller grids if everyone legitimately has a shot at winning. Right now you just have the factory Hondas and the factory Yamahas and then maybe one or both of their satellite bikes that will be on the podium, plus possibly Dovi on the Duc. Everyone else has basically ZERO chance of every being in the top 3. The CRTs are so irrelevant that they make a big deal of the top one, even though they are usually 10th overall. So why not just have the 8-10 factory bikes?

 

[kevin 714]

The CRTS and the larger grid is a major reason why zook came back. They no longer have to worry about coming in last, or near last. They can use the series as R&D without worrying about possible brand damage by coming in only a few places from last.

 

[augustiron]

It's going to get crowded in Park Firme when they have to squeeze the top 3 prototypes, top CRT and whatever other consolation prizes they start handing out....

 

[cencalballer]

The CRTS and the larger grid is a major reason why zook came back. They no longer have to worry about coming in last, or near last. They can use the series as R&D without worrying about possible brand damage by coming in only a few places from last.

That and relates to streetbike sales which they are more concerned about.

 

[kevin 714]

It's going to get crowded in Park Firme when they have to squeeze the top 3 prototypes, top CRT and whatever other consolation prizes they start handing out....

They really should change it to top privateer. While top CRT is a bit much, top privateer team I can actually get behind.

I've always been of the similar assumption that grid size is less important that action at the front, but the CRTS are making leaps and bounds. A few more good riders and another year of development and it'll be even better. More riders also means more opportunity for rookies as well as more varied nationalities.

 

[Zerox]

I miss 2006, the season that everyone seems to forget around here. :laughing

Back when everybody with a helmet had a Honda and won a race. That was a magical season.