BMW-engined MotoGP bike breaks cover

AFTER A non-appearance at the official Brno test earlier in the season, the first potential MotoGP Claiming Rule Team bike broke cover at Misano, with a BMW engine and Moto2 bodywork around a specially built Suter chassis - and it doesn't come cheap.

With a gobsmacking 600,000 euro price tag for the chassis alone, the comparison with a leased factory bike at 1.2-million Euros was not especially favourable.

“We saw a new opportunity with the 2012 rules,” explained Suter, a former GP racer. “We decided to put a motorcycle on track, to have a competitive bike ready.

“We decided to use a BMW S1000RR motor because it has very high potential and is very compact, similar to the Moto2 CBR600 engine, so there are many crossovers between our Moto2 bike and this machine – which is a development bike, and not final.”

He said there had been no BMW support for the project: “We purchased the engine for ourselves.” It was little modified so far, apart from fitting a Suter dry slipper clutch. They had a few option on electronics, but expected to start off using the standard BMW package, “which I believe is very good”, he said. “But I believe the torque characteristics of a 1000cc motor will meant that the electronic influence will be less.”

Plans are to get the machine 'up' to 145 kg ready to race. “At the moment it is underweight,” said Suter.