09-30-2005, 12:33 PM
As some of you know, a few weeks ago I did an interview with the Honda of America Road Racing Crew Chief/Manager Al Luddington at VIR during the AMA race weekend there. Hopefully the interview with pics will be on Vtec.net soon but I thought I'd give you guys a little taste.
Ok, so there are currently several teams running CBR1000ÔÇÖs around the world, Ten Kate, the BSB team, Renegade Honda, Klaffi Honda, and I believe there are some teams running in Japan. Do you guys interface with them at all or exchange notes with them?
We have a guy on the team, Daisuke Hashimoto who has spent some time in Europe working on GP stuff so he has some real good connections with those guys. Earlier in the year when we were struggling trying to find a good baseline he actually did a two week trip, went to a couple of races, interfaced with all the Honda teams. They were very generous with their data all the way down to valving specifications and everything like that. He took pictures, he cataloged everything, we knew where everyone was at around the world that was racing Hondas. So to answer your question, we do keep close track of what the other guys are running, how its working, and things like that.
If youÔÇÖve got a big information pool and you have access to it youÔÇÖd be silly not to use it you know? I mean, IÔÇÖve always had a philosophy that kinda goes against maybe what some guys do, but IÔÇÖve always said good ideas always steal ÔÇÿem. Why reinvent the wheel? SomebodyÔÇÖs got a good idea thereÔÇÖs no sense in breaking your back trying to do something on your own just because you want it to be your own idea, thatÔÇÖs silly. Steal a good idea, use it, move yourself forward, move on
So with the development effort with the CBR1000ÔÇÖs how do you guys tackle it? Do you say ÔÇÿOK weÔÇÖre gonna develop the engine in parallel with the chassisÔÇÖ or ÔÇÿweÔÇÖre gonna concentrate on the chassis for a couple of months until we get something sorted outÔÇÖ Do you kind of look at where the shortcomings are and take on a shortcoming at a time?
Exactly, you hit it right on the head, we get ÔÇÿem out on the racetrack and circulate the racetrack, look at your lap times. Ok, why canÔÇÖt we achieve better lap times? Initially it was the suspension package. Ok, more power isnÔÇÖt going to do us any good, we canÔÇÖt use what we have now, we need to concentrate on the chassis. Now weÔÇÖre at the point with the chassisÔÇÖs such that we need to get back to engine development. WeÔÇÖd like to run everything in parallel but, this being our first year weÔÇÖre not adequately staffed. We recognize that as something that we need to do next year to stack up the development side of things much more intensively
Ok, so there are currently several teams running CBR1000ÔÇÖs around the world, Ten Kate, the BSB team, Renegade Honda, Klaffi Honda, and I believe there are some teams running in Japan. Do you guys interface with them at all or exchange notes with them?
We have a guy on the team, Daisuke Hashimoto who has spent some time in Europe working on GP stuff so he has some real good connections with those guys. Earlier in the year when we were struggling trying to find a good baseline he actually did a two week trip, went to a couple of races, interfaced with all the Honda teams. They were very generous with their data all the way down to valving specifications and everything like that. He took pictures, he cataloged everything, we knew where everyone was at around the world that was racing Hondas. So to answer your question, we do keep close track of what the other guys are running, how its working, and things like that.
If youÔÇÖve got a big information pool and you have access to it youÔÇÖd be silly not to use it you know? I mean, IÔÇÖve always had a philosophy that kinda goes against maybe what some guys do, but IÔÇÖve always said good ideas always steal ÔÇÿem. Why reinvent the wheel? SomebodyÔÇÖs got a good idea thereÔÇÖs no sense in breaking your back trying to do something on your own just because you want it to be your own idea, thatÔÇÖs silly. Steal a good idea, use it, move yourself forward, move on
So with the development effort with the CBR1000ÔÇÖs how do you guys tackle it? Do you say ÔÇÿOK weÔÇÖre gonna develop the engine in parallel with the chassisÔÇÖ or ÔÇÿweÔÇÖre gonna concentrate on the chassis for a couple of months until we get something sorted outÔÇÖ Do you kind of look at where the shortcomings are and take on a shortcoming at a time?
Exactly, you hit it right on the head, we get ÔÇÿem out on the racetrack and circulate the racetrack, look at your lap times. Ok, why canÔÇÖt we achieve better lap times? Initially it was the suspension package. Ok, more power isnÔÇÖt going to do us any good, we canÔÇÖt use what we have now, we need to concentrate on the chassis. Now weÔÇÖre at the point with the chassisÔÇÖs such that we need to get back to engine development. WeÔÇÖd like to run everything in parallel but, this being our first year weÔÇÖre not adequately staffed. We recognize that as something that we need to do next year to stack up the development side of things much more intensively
2018 Ducati Panigale V4
Past: 2018 Honda Civic Type-R, 2015 Yamaha R1, 2009 BMW M3, 2013 Aprilia RSV4R, 2006 Honda Ridgeline, 2006 Porsche Cayman S, 2012 Ducati 1199, 2009 Subaru WRX, 2008 CBR1000RR, 2009 Kawasaki ZX-6R, 2000 Toyota Tundra, 2005 Honda CBR600RR, 1996 Acura Integra GS-R, 1996 Acura Integra GS-R, 1997 Honda Civic EX
http://www.aclr8.com
Past: 2018 Honda Civic Type-R, 2015 Yamaha R1, 2009 BMW M3, 2013 Aprilia RSV4R, 2006 Honda Ridgeline, 2006 Porsche Cayman S, 2012 Ducati 1199, 2009 Subaru WRX, 2008 CBR1000RR, 2009 Kawasaki ZX-6R, 2000 Toyota Tundra, 2005 Honda CBR600RR, 1996 Acura Integra GS-R, 1996 Acura Integra GS-R, 1997 Honda Civic EX
http://www.aclr8.com
