Quote:
Originally Posted by bsess
I'm not saying the RC45 was a bad bike. I was stoked when JK won the title in '97. It just never delivered an equitable return on its cost/investment as compared to the Ducatis of that era which were less powerful and less sophisticated.
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Honda's investment in the RC45 paid off as equity in the RC211V V5...
Ducati sat out the first year of MotoGp buying into Piero Ferrari's
High Performance Engineering concern because they had 0.0
invested in a V4 design... Suzuki also struggled because they also had
0.0 invested in a V4 design... Kenny Roberts thought he could whip out
a V5 with the help of some very talented Formula One veterans but
without any prior V4 investment their design suffered high internal
friction... you have to put your dues in MotoGp engine design and that
is where Honda's RC45 paid dividends...