Estoril testing

It looks like Ducati is all in with this style chassis as next years world super bike will have a chassis just like the GP bike but made out of aluminum. I know this isn't a SBK discussion but does that mean the production bikes have to have the same chassis.

hawkdriver said:

It looks like Ducati is all in with this style chassis as next years world super bike will have a chassis just like the GP bike but made out of aluminum. I know this isn't a SBK discussion but does that mean the production bikes have to have the same chassis.

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They have to homologate the bike for wsbk by manufacturing/selling production bikes as far as I understand, and the number required has gone up rather than down, partly because ducati's limited run version of their motogp bike a few years ago went close to the old required number, although on present indications perhaps their current wsbk bike is better than their motogp bike anyway . I think the homologation standards are somewhat rubbery, with aprilia in particular apparently allowed some concessions as a new entrant, but I can't imagine it would extend to a different chassis design even for ducati.



Interesting that it is going to be aluminium because rumours a while back as I recall were that they were going with carbon fibre for the production bike; perhaps valentino and jb ahve already decided and told them carbon fibre is no good . There have also been rumours of a narrower angle V2 on a forthcoming production bike, but perhaps this is not going to pan out because as j4rno has eloquently explained the length of the L4 engine was a major reason for the integrated engine chassis etc approach.