None whatsoever. Until the recent rule chage which required engine manufacturers to supply the same engine and upgrade components to all the teams, factory, satellite and independent, Rea’s bike was a one off for him and him alone. Andy
I remember commenting last year how I didn`t think "Bowling Ball" Bautista would do any good, shows what I know. It`s "Bloody Brilliant" Bautista from now on.
I will take Chaz for the championship, not yet fit and no time on what is likely to be the best overall bike. Maybe my heart ruling my head though.
FIM rules state that to homologate a bike for WSBK racing, every manufacturer is required to sell to the public a minimum of 500 bikes for everyday use that the race bike is based around. So every manufacturer has to release an homologation special. The price of that everyday use bike is capped at €40,000 under the latest (2019) rules and the homologation rules further cap the costs of each component or part of the road bike that is replaced for racing. FIM, Dorna and the manufacturers negotiate and agree these rules every 3 years. All put in place to cap the costs of racing on the world stage. Andy
Lowes tweeted a good response to Rea and his article. It basically said, now you know what the rest of the field have been facing for the last 4 years
They’re pretty much using this year to develop the S1000RR, Jamie said there’s no point them tuning the engine just now for it to go bang, so develop it throughout the season. Apparently the chassis package is spot on, so when the power comes he expects Tom to be a front runner.
Rea has a point about £35k specials versus his £18k special. However Kawasaki have economies of scale and unit cost economics a specialist manufacturer such as Ducati can not hope to match. If what people want to see is a diverse set of manufacturers competing against each other, and presumably Dorna and sponsors want to see the same, there’s few other options to achieve it.
The HP4 is not an homologation special. The advertising blurb says it has been manufactured to race out of the box although it doesn't say in which series. I do however suspect that the engine isn't far off the WSBK engine in performance. Andy
With Pankl con rods and a re-worked head so they can up the homologation special's 'everyday use bike' rev limit to combat the current race bike success reduced rev limit, the 2019 Kawasaki ZX10RR does not cost £18k so Rea is talking out of his arse. Andy
Kawasaki market cap = 481.53B Volkswagen Group market cap = 77.09B So I guess Kawasaki have the deeper pockets. Go underdog!!! It's just like Foggy on a privateer 888! Yay!
Don't think JR was complaining the V4R is not FIM legal, nor did I. His point was that tha Japs homolgation specials are much more near to the mass produced bikes. V4s vs. V4R (14000 vs 16500rpm) compared to ZX10R vs. ZX10RR.(13000 rpm vs 13500rpm) and so on Yamaha , Honda..... just to mention the engine, let alone frames and other major components. Fair enough nothing stops the Japs to release a 500no street legal more special homologation bike. Especially since they have much more monies to spend. Would it be within FIM rules? definitely yes. Would it push the costs up? definitely yes. Would the wsbk bikes be nearer to a gp bike than an actual 1000cc sold to masses? definitely yes Next recession and again a lot of the manufacturers will pull out......
Just good to see the series mixed up a bit, whether that's the V4 or wee Leon mixing it up. Previous few years it has probably been the dullest race series on the planet, aside from the world wounded hunting tortoise championships.
