A little late with its unveiling, Mission Motors has finally shown off its Mission One TTXGP race bike to the public at large. Noticeable right off the bat is the lack of fit-and-finish the the Mission One displays when compared to the Brammo or MotoCzysz motorcycles. But as the A&R track bike can attest to, how a bike looks, is poor, and usually incorrect indication of how it goes around the race track.
First to arrive on the Isle of Man, Brammo has been the most photogenic of the TTXGP contestants from the United States. If IOM gossip is to be believed, the team has been spotted swinging the occasional wrench in between pub hosted team meetings.
Today on the Isle, Brammo was out testing the TTR on a 40 mile circuit. While they haven’t been out on the full Mountain Course yet, they were able to test the TTR over the 40 miles at a continuous race pace, with a focus on the increasing the endurance of the electric race bike. They were kind enough to shoot a couple shots of Roy Richardson putting the TTR through its paces. Photos after the jump.
Friday, Donington Park announced two major developments. The first announcement is that Donington Park has passed FIM inspection, just ahead of this month’s WSBK stop, and next month’s MotoGP stop at the historic British track.
The second announcement is that DVLL, the track operator which leases the premises from landowner Tom Wheatcroft, has settled on , thus insuring the continued use of the track for motoring events.
After his strong showing at Miller Motorsports Park, Jamie Hacking has been tapped to replace Makoto Tamada at the next two rounds of World Superbike racing at Misano and Donington Park. The news is a boon to Hacking who has been hoping to crack into the WSBK circuit since the start of the season. AMA viewers may remember more than a couple disgruntled Hacking moments where the rider has expressed his take on the AMA in his post-race interviews. WSBK racers may enjoy this news less vigor, as the American’s passing style was of some controversy at the Utah circuit.
Thursday, the organizers (ASO) of the Dakar Rally announced that the event will only allow 450cc motorcycls in the professional class. Taking the news a bit hard, KTM has now claimed that the new class regulations are specifically “designed to end the dominance of KTM” in the historic and difficult race.
Unable to field and prep 450cc rally bikes, the Austrian company has announced that it will cut the race completely out of its schedule and budget, leaving nearly 50 riders SOL for bikes and/or sponsorships.
With Moto2 being an ever evolving race class, there is still some speculation as to whom its official partners will be. Repsol seems to be an almost lock on supplying oil and lubricants to the over-pepped 600cc Honda powerplants, as the Spanish company has a strangle hold on the MotoGP racing series.
What may come as a surprise to race fans though, is the resurgance of Michelin in prototype racing. After a less than stellar season last year in MotoGP, . Now, the French company is allegedly poised to sign a contract with Dorna to be the sole-tire provider with the fledgling Moto2 race class. This rumor seems to put out Dunlop, which has had a long history with the 250GP series.
With Moto2 constantly changing and adopting, we’ll believe this rumor as being possible for now; but, as always, time will tell.
Source: Moto.Caradisiac
As we said Monday, we had photos of the MotoCzysz in its final TTXGP race form, and here they are out in the wild now for all to see.
Looking at the photos, we can see that MotoCzysz chose to keep 6 of the 10 battery packs visible in the final design, 3 on each side. We can also see the chain connecting the 3 motors below the number 5 on the silver and red fairing. A slightly confusing touch is the C1 logo placed in the fairing. C1 is the name given to their MotoGP project which was recently abandoned to pursue the TTXGP electric motorcycle race at Isle Of Man.
Of all the TTXGP bikes that have broken cover over the last week the MotoCzysz may have been the most anticipated besides the Brammo TTR. We have to say the E1pc looks as good as it sounds with all three electric motors drawing max current.
Also from the pictures we can see the iPhone powered dash unit, which we assume is bringing speed, acceleration, pitch, and lateral-g information to rider via the phone’s bevy of built-in gadgetry. Take that in contrast to the almost rudimentry on/kill switch that looks so easy a Geico spokesperson could use it. Green for go, Red for stop.
Another note is the top-down view on the triple clamps. Gone are the pre-load and compression knobs most motorcyclists are familiar with, instead we see a hollow tube that goes down to the proprietary MotoCzysz fork/suspension assembly, another carry-over from the deceased MotoGP hopeful.
MotoCzysz still has not revealed much about the internals of this D1gi1al Superbike, a term they filed a trademark for at the USPTO. However, we do know this bike is designed to be flexible in power and tuning so it will be available to the consumer at multiple price points.
Source: MotoCzysz
It would seem that the Dorna might be interested in adding Imola to the list of venues MotoGP attends this year. The Italian daily newspaper has reported that FIM’s Race Director Paul Butler recently visited the Imola race circuit, and seemed to approve of the track, and is considering it as a replacement to the dropped Hungarian GP.
The day of reckoning for the TTXGP entrants is almost upon us. In just a short matter of months we’ve seen a handful of dedicated teams take on the challenge of building a fully electrically powered superbike motorcycle fit for FIM sanctioned racing.
Not at an easy feat to say the least.
Now granted, there’s still the matter of 30+ mile course to be covered, and of course all the chaos and excitement of race day, but all of the entrants should be proud of the hard work, and sleepless nights we’re sure they have encountered on their way to the Isle of Man TT.
The Braking gods at Brembo have formed a new joint venture with carbon-fiber supplier, SGL Group, with the specific intent of bringing mass-produced, lower-cost carbon brake discs for widerspread application. Read: beyond the world for Formula1, MotoGP, and $200,000 Porsches.