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Earlier this year Leo Francesco Mercanti, Aprilia brand manager, told us about Aprilia's intention to re-enter World Superbikes in 2008 with a v4, and at the Milan Motorcycle show today, we saw the remarkable engine of the new bike, bristling with innovation. Developed entirely in-house, the Aprilia engineers have used a slightly wider configuration of 65° between the cylinders (compared to the current RSV twin's 60°), maintaining excellent fluid dynamics in the inlet ports whilst still allowing a short and narrow engine that'll give the chassis engineers a lot of flexibility over placement. The primary vibration inherent in a 65° angle between the pairs of cylinders is negated through use of a balance shaft. Space is further saved by a very unusual design for driving the dual overhead cams. Only the inner (inlet) cams are driven by chains which in turn, drive the outer cams through a series of gears between each pair of cylinders. The importance of a highly compact v configuration was learnt from the hugely successful SXV v-twin engine which achieved it's compactness through a different route, via a single overhead cam per cylinder. Aprilia have been so successful that the RSV 4 v-four engine is even more compact than the venerable Rotax V60 v-twin with which Aprilia first entered WSB in 1999, and which drives the current RSVR Factory, this year crowned the fastest production motorcycle in the world in the objective and prestigious Masterbike competition. In WSB racing trim the engine revs to 13,500rpm and already produces 207bhp (at the crank obviously) with plenty of development work to do before the 2008 season. The throttle linkage is fly-by-wire with the throttle butterflies on each pair of cylinders operated by two stepper motors controlled directly by the Magneti Marelli ECU, which also controls two injectors per cylinder, one either side of the throttle butterfly. WSB entry also means that Aprilia will be producing RSV4 homologation specials for the road, much like the RSV SP, which should also mean a range of full production bikes, hopefully also for 2008. The power on these production models will have to be a fair bit lower for cost and longevity reasons, but it's abit early to speculate on what exactly to expect, suffice it to say that it'll be more than competitive. The price will obviously be in excess of the current RSVR Factory, but not as much as you might think, and certainly less than the 999R. Related Link: Aprilia RSV4 engine promo video (Italian) Update 22/02/08: In front of 1,200 dealers, Aprilia has unveiled its RSV-4 Superbike Race Bike in Milan. And quite an entrance it was too with the bike descending in a crate through smoke high in the ceiling of the hall. Now heading for the 2009 World Superbike Championship season, Aprilia are obliged to sell at least 1,000 road going versions of these bikes per year. They even had the bike running on the stage (see video) to prove that this was far from vapourware. All the bodywork was obviously carbon fibre. Full details remain sketchy as there's still a year's worth of development to do, but the engine has clearly evolved a great deal since we initially saw it over a year ago and it was interesting to see the rev counter going up to 16,000 rpm (not that necessarily proves anything...). We're often asked about when the road version of the RSV4 will be available, and to be honest we don't know, but our best guess from past experience is that we'll see them at the Milan Show at the end of the year but we wont be getting our first deliveries until well into 2009. Alex Hofmann has been seen riding the RSV4 in Jerez, Estoril and Valencia alongside the Aprilia factory testing of their 125 and 250 race bikes, and it's believed that he has a two year contract to test in 2008 and race in SBK in 2009. Though there remains the possibility of a guest slot or two at the end of the 2008 season. With the potential arrival of BMW and KTM as well, the 2009 season promises to be something very special. Entry into the US domestic AMA Superbike championship is expected in 2010, to coincide with a big brand relaunch in the States. There were a few hints at the dealer convention about re-entry into motogp as well, but that's a discussion for another time. We'll bring you more information on Aprilia's RSV 4 as we get it. Is there anything you'd like to add to this News item? Then go to the MaxMoto Message Board for the Aprilia v-four ( 6 comments). Would you like to receive regular news items like this? And be entered into our regular prize draws? Then, Join our Newsletter.
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MaxMoto News 14/11/06.
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