WHEN A GLORIOUS ERA ENDED
FROM SLICK #19
Nothing is eternal, not even the category most beloved by the public and drivers in the racing world.
So did the 500, MotoGP’s premier class from its inception in 1949 until 2001, gave way, doomed by an evolution that ended up making it anachronistic. Its technical essence was heavily at odds with increasingly stringent emissions regulations: the 2-stroke engine even before entering the 21st century had been banned in some countries and so restricted in others as to make it less and less attractive for mass production. Even in small displacements for urban mobility, the use of 4-stroke engines had become increasingly popular until 2-strokes were limited to such small numbers that the ultimate expression of motorcycle technology applied to sport had lost touch with the real world.
At the same time, Superbike was experiencing seasons of glory with its series-derived bikes in which the racing public identified their supersport, a category now on the verge of extinction that in its time was a major success by fostering the rise of World SBK, which even came to undermine the popularity of World GP in its heyday. This Dorna, promoter of GPs since the 1990s, just could not allow. And so the switch to “4-strokes” began to become a topic of discussion in meetings with the Manufacturers.
The first to address the issue were those participating in the championship: Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki and Aprilia, lined up with the twin-cylinder bike created with the purpose and hope of beating the power of the 4-cylinders with the weapon of handling and cornering speed. Responses were immediately positive, and interest was also cashed in from other major companies such as Ducati (which joined the company in 2003) and Kawasaki, which came and went too quickly to make its mark.
Of course, within a short time the rumors came out of the control rooms and spread to the paddock, sparking endless discussions between those in favor of the change and those who were not.
At the same time, the Flammini Brothers, the promoters of Superbike, began to fight their own battle to defend the uniqueness of their championship, seeing (rightly) an enemy in the arrival of 4-stroke 1000 engines in the most emblazoned series.
As we well know nostalgia and legitimate partisan interests could do nothing to stop an inevitable change. From a technical point of view, it must be emphasized, the 500 had stood still for a long time, if we exclude a few timid attempts to switch from carburetors to fuel injection, experimented without much conviction or success. Electronics were not even talked about, and if they were, it was certainly not in today’s terms. At most, a few sensors were placed to detect temperatures here and there. And it began to be applied to the gearbox, but in a very primitive way.
The secret of the 500 was inherent in its monstrous power-to-weight ratio, which left breathless, among many others, even the last champion of the category: Valentino Rossi called it “impressive,” on par with all those who had preceded him. Indeed, it was a bike capable of insane accelerations, very difficult to tame and capable of betraying you at any moment. With her, terrible high-side crashes-in which the rider was thrown into the air and then plunged heavily back onto the asphalt-were the order of the day. With often heavy physical consequences, not least because even the technical clothing was not up to today’s standards.
It soon became clear that the die was cast. There would be no second thoughts. The 500 no longer had any ties to series production and consequently was outdated. Superbikes were derived from series production and consequently had nothing to do with the prototypes we would see in GPs. In fact, MotoGP had been born.
Everything happened very quickly even though no one really made themselves ready for the appointment with the new category, so in 2002 the decision was made to make the new bikes coexist with the old ones. A matter of necessity, because without a good number of 500s the starting lineup would have been desolately empty, and that would not have been good for the championship and its momentous change.
The risk that the 2Ts could really hold their own against the MotoGPs just didn’t exist. With double displacement, getting where Honda hadn’t got with its highly sophisticated NR 500 4T would have been child’s play. But HRC, as always far ahead on the technology front, wanted to leave nothing to chance and designed the legendary 5-cylinder RC211V, which turned out to be clearly superior to the competition.
Valentino Rossi first tested it at Suzuka in the summer of 2001 for his participation in the 8 Hours, finding a thousand faults with it; but after the appropriate interventions by the racing department, he fully understood its potential at the second test and realized that an easier task awaited him than in 2001.
Yamaha and Suzuki dared much less, remaining tied to solutions that soon proved outdated, with unsatisfactory results. More revolutionary certainly proved to be theAprilia RS Cube, powered by an engine designed by engineers of automotive extraction, but the Italian bike did not shine either.
A few riders condemned to an extra season on the 500 managed to take the satisfaction of the podium despite the unequal challenge, but the fate of those bikes was sealed. At Valencia, in the tests that followed the close of the 2002 World Championship, even the “satellite” teams got their hands on the MotoGP bikes, and by order from above, unused Japanese 500 parts were “disposed of” in containers that would take them back to their homeland or who knows where. An era was truly over.