Exhausting business

As notified yesterday, Ducati Corse held a private test at Mugello yesterday, a triple-header, actually. On test was the current GP bike, the GP11, next year’s GP bike, the GP12 (of which more in a moment) and the 2012 iteration of Ducati’s WSBK bike.

In his usual “saying a prayer before hopping on” pose, this shot of Rossi shows an interesting feature of the 2012 bike; it has at least one low-mounted exhaust. This is a departure from the GP11 which had a 4-into-1 exhaust exiting in the rear seat area (as shown here). So it seems like Ducati have listened to many who have suggested that the under-seat exhaust of the GP11 is one of the reasons why Rossi has appeared so awkward-looking on the bike this season. Being so much taller than its previous riders, the high rear seat hasn’t allowed him to anywhere near as comfortable on the current bike as he was, say, on the Yamaha. If this is the case, then, it shows that Ducati s very serious indeed about tailoring the bike around him rather than trying to make him fit in with their present configuration.

Rossi did 62 laps yesterday and the team issued a press release afterwards. I won’t bother quoting it; it’s full of the usual platitudes, “Productive day” “good data” yada, yada, yada.  They certainly SHOULD be getting good data, as they ran 4 riders for most of the day, Rossi and Hayden as well as nominated test rider, Franco Battaini and occasional test rider and full time team manager, Vittoriano Guareschi.

No word on what happened in the superbike test, however, guess we’ll have to wait for another press release…I can hardly wait…NOT.

Further to my post of a couple of days ago, the continuing rumour of Honda’s revival of the RVF moniker has been fanned by an article in MCN (yes, I know, but, winnow away the chaff and sometimes they actually do publish some interesting information) and by Motorcyclist magazine (who, to be fair, seem to be quoting a lot of MCN stuff).

The latest suggestions are that Honda will introduce an RVF1000F, perhaps as soon as the end of this year. This will be a pure race bike to start with, aimed at replacing the aging and only sometimes competitive CBR1000RR. The road bike version will be a a top-end, more exclusive road bike that will fit in ABOVE the CBR range but not replace it. As is usual with MCN, the article is nearly all speculation with just enough facts to ensure that it doesn’t look like a delayed April 1st effort. And, also as per usual MCN practice, a cgi rendering goes with it to whet our appetite as to what MIGHT be…

So, if you ever had a hankering for an RC45 and couldn’t/can’t afford one, you mightn’t need to wait to long to satisfy your desires. (we hope)

In racing, the Isle of Man TT carnival kicks off this weekend and runs till the 10th June. My good mate, Derek Hanbidge is on his way there and will cover it for his own web site as well as keeping me well informed of events. He is also attending the Goodwood Festival of Speed afterwards so should return with his grab bag filled with tasty photographs as he usually does. Derek has also promised to visit the site where Kenny Blake was killed 30 years ago and lay some flowers there in Kenny’s memory, a very kind and touching offer.

POSTSCRIPT:

My good mate, Peter Geran, has sent me few photos which I found fascinating. Apparently this is not the first time that Ducati have used a low-exit exhaust. In both 2009 and 2010 the GP bike had a low-exit pipe for the right cylinders and an underseat for the left ones.

So, there you go. Everything old is new again.