I recall those engines had some cooling issues and were short-lived. ‘90’s was a great period in bike racing.
Actually the first tried it in the 1970s
Yes, they mention that in the article..........
Yeah, this could have use in a race car where the engine is rebuilt regularly but as far as "rewriting the future of gas engines", that's a stretch. The uneven forces on the piston, connecting rods, and crankshaft will drastically shorten the time between overhauls. That's not even considering the greater cost of machining.
“Honda already did this back in the 90s:”
Thank you packagingguy! You saved me the trouble of finding a link. I read the whole article on the Ferrari design waiting to see if the article gave credit to Honda. Although the NR was not a successful Moto-GP racer against the 2-strokes, it exceeded my expectations as an actual motorcycle. It was quite fast, just not fast enough.
Thanks,
Oldplayer
Honda got their inspiration for this idea from an engineer that they recruited from Mazda. See post #28.
Honda already did this back in the 90s:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_NR>>> Completely different design. The ovals are perpendicular to the shaft. The honda has them parallel and with two connecting rods in each.
Hey, someone read the excerpt and repeated something from the second half on it for everyone else!