Honda tapped to supply racing bike engines for new Moto2 series
Could things be turning around for Honda's racing department? The Japanese industrial giant began canceling its motorsport programs one by one when things took a turn for the worse economically, but after withdrawing from the AMA Road Racing motorbike series a few months ago, Honda is getting back in the saddle according to reports by supplying the engines to all the teams competing in the upcoming new Moto2 series.
Like GP2 is to Formula One – or the Nationwide Series is to the Sprint Cup in NASCAR – the new Moto2 championship slots in as a feeder and support series to the top-tier MotoGP. Currently the 250cc class (like the Honda example pictured above) serves that function, but like the organizers did with MotoGP and the pre-extant 500cc class, the new Moto2 bikes will be mixed into the field for next season before the new formula replaces the old one in 2011. The new Honda engines, however, will be 600cc, four-stroke units with over 150 horsepower on tap, potentially prepared by European Honda tuner Ten Kate. Who knows, maybe they can still bolt a couple of these together and get back on board with Brawn GP, too.
[Source: Autosport]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
EJ25RUN 8:46AM (5/04/2009)
Did you really have any doubts Dorna was to pick them?
I mean, Honda stopped development of the RS250R back in 2006.
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IOMTT 9:19AM (5/04/2009)
Did they just say 150 HP out of 600cc (37 cu in)? Can you say 18000 plus rpm?
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erusnak 11:45AM (5/04/2009)
what are they getting out of the MotoGP 800cc bikes? 200+?
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IOMTT 4:51PM (5/04/2009)
Probably about 220 plus HP at close to 19000rpm. The old 990's were about 265. I did not expect this much tech for a feeder series to replace 250s (about 100HP). The new 4 strokes are still pretty weak compared to the old two strokes for specific output. (200hp from 500cc). But 4 strokes are more relevant to the market.
A-style 3:00AM (5/05/2009)
Nice little dig at Honda's F1 program.
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