Last weekend I watched two motogp related movies/documentaries that were released some time ago, I’m talking about “Faster” and “The Doctor, the Tornado and the Kentucky Kid“. I’m not going to make a review of them, because there are already a lot on internet, I just will mention that I found them really good, I think that any motogp enthusiast will love these movies, it’s worth to watch it.
The reason I’m writing this post is that I found something that I didn’t know, and that captured my attention: the most radical aerodynamic concept that I have seen in the modern World Championship era.
During 2002 season, the new 990 4 strokes coexisted with the almost wiped out 500 cc. 2 strokes. The new 990’s had more power and higher top speed. Peter Clifford’s team, Red Bull Yamaha, tried to reduce the top speed difference improving the aerodynamics of their bikes. In March of 2002, they planned a secret test in Valencia (Spain), because they wanted to test a new bodywork.
The rider who tested it was a very young John Hopkins (in 2002 he made his debut in MotoGP, he was only 19 years old), because his team mate, Gary Mckoy was injuried. The test finished when Hopkins had a crash, but the team members said that it was not related with the bodywork they were testing.
Although wind tunnel tests were possitive, the team ruled out the new bodywork, because as they mention in the movie, in the test they didn’t achieve any significant improvement.
[tags]aerodynamics, bodywork, motogp, peter clifford, testing[/tags]