Thread: ***Moto GP engine rules 2012***

MotoGP's switch to 1000cc engines from 2012 has been passed by motorcycle racing's government body, the FIM.

The change has been mooted since the summer, and was officially approved during yesterday's Grand Prix Commission meeting.

Only the basic engine concept has been revealed so far - with the capacity being up to 1000cc and the engines having four cylinders and a maximum bore of 81 millimetres. FIM president Vito Ippolito said that further details would follow soon, but that this should be sufficient for the manufacturers to begin preparing for 2012.

"This base will give all the manufacturers the opportunity to start work," he said.

"At the beginning of next year we will produce the new rules in a more complete format, but that is the basis; 2012 will be the year of a new era of MotoGP."

MotoGP commercial rights-holder Carmelo Ezpeleta added that further meetings to fine-tune the format would take place before next season's championship commences.

"This has been approved and between now and the start of the 2010 season we will have another two meetings to define the rest of the specifications for this new class," he said.

There have been concerns that changing to 1000cc engines would bring MotoGP too close to World Superbike rules, although Ippolito has previously suggested that the FIM feels engine similarity would be irrelevant as the crucial differentiation between the two classes is that MotoGP bikes are pure racing prototypes whereas Superbikes have road origins.

MotoGP started with 990cc engines when it superseded the 500cc world championship in 2002, but the engine capacity was reduced to 800cc from the start of the 2007 season.

However this change failed to keep reduce cornering speeds as had been hoped, and led to criticism from leading riders who felt the lower power and greater importance of electrical systems such as traction control meant MotoGP was no longer sufficiently challenging.

wonder what hp these bikes will be pushing now?
is it 1000 cc or 999 cc like the superbikes? kinda weird since the reason moto gp went to 990 instead of 1000 the first time was to keep it prototype racing and less in common with the literbikes.
I think this is good....moto gp stuff always trickles down to superbikes and then supersports.......and this will make the literbikes of the future even more fun.

I like it! Although I'm still up in the air on the traction control in race format. Great for road based bikes but would like to see it out of MotoGP...they got to test it out somewhere though. Nicky Haden and Ben Spies are jumping up and down in joy for this change...

I really started closely following motorcycle racing just a couple years ago, so I don't have a great basis of comparison when it comes to the 990 versus the 800 cc machines. I'm hoping we don't see what we saw when they first changed to the 800's: One manufacturer being much more successful than the others (Ducati) with their new design thus yielding a not so exciting season of racing. Granted, each season thereafter got more and more exciting (well, except that the same 4 riders consistently were in the top)....but things are just starting to get good. I know GP riding is much different than SBK riding styles, but I'm hoping these rule changes will make it a little easier on the US riders; I'm really pulling for Spies and Edwards!

Originally Posted by usnawolfe

I really started closely following motorcycle racing just a couple years ago, so I don't have a great basis of comparison when it comes to the 990 versus the 800 cc machines. I'm hoping we don't see what we saw when they first changed to the 800's: One manufacturer being much more successful than the others (Ducati) with their new design thus yielding a not so exciting season of racing. Granted, each season thereafter got more and more exciting (well, except that the same 4 riders consistently were in the top)....but things are just starting to get good. I know GP riding is much different than SBK riding styles, but I'm hoping these rule changes will make it a little easier on the US riders; I'm really pulling for Spies and Edwards!

dont forget hayden...he shines on the big hp uncontrollable monsters.
I think this is kind of bike corser will be good on also...

Originally Posted by incognito

It's about time! But it's ironic that they stepped back to 800cc's because the 990s were getting too fast for the tracks and runoffs weren't getting any longer..

Originally Posted by Bignmz04

dont forget hayden...he shines on the big hp uncontrollable monsters. (The 800s made big uncontrollable power)
I think this is kind of bike corser will be good on also...

The real irony is, it did'nt work. The 800's made almost as much power and lap times were quicker than the 990s in less than one full season.

The intent of the new engine rules is to "productionize" the formula. To get away from the truely exotic technology (reduce development costs). Hence the 4 cylinder rule.

When Moto GP came to be, you could run any number of cylinders. The rules stated that if you ran 6 or more you would have to run a smaller displacement than the less than 6 cylinder bikes. In typical Honda fashion, they looked at it from an engineering point of view. What if 3 front cylinders displaced the same volume as two rear cylinders? What if the 3 front pistons and rods had the exact same weight as the rear two pistons and rods? Effectively you have a V6 without the displacement penalty. Same goes for the NR500 and 750 race bikes. Honda wanted to run a V8 in GP and in the World Endurance Championship. Again rules against V8s. Simple, an oval piston V4 is effectively a V8 minus the bore seperation. It was not successfull, but the concept was pretty ingenious.

The new Moto GP rules will be 1 Litre 4 cylinders (Inline or V configuration). No V5, V6 or exotic stuff. Also by limiting the bore, you essentially put a cap on how short the stroke can be to meet the 1 litre limit. This is an attempt to reduce RPM. I know most of you think 1 Litre yeah - big engines etc, but we'll have to wait and see if it ends up being just a World Superbike Extra series. I do understand the intent. The grid is thin, they need more particiapants, and we all want good racing, but neutering the technological show ground of the manufacturers often times gets them to quit. I'm sure we will hear a lot more about this, as it is just an outline for 2012.

I see....always wanted one of those nsr750 v4 oval piston two rod per piston bikes...now I see why they made that...thanks

the new rules almost sound like the old fusa series rules minus the rule on how many cyl you can run...my fave bike all time is the old fusa run muzzy raptor

what was the top speed of the 800 compared to the 990 bikes? as I remember the reason the 800 were faster was because of the better corner speed and the new TC, launch control and the other techs made better...any truth to this?

now you have pectal and motec stuff on wsbk, fx, and ama sbk (from two years ago) that match the tc and launch control of the moto gp bikes..