Evoked in our article on the Kymco Oral, the company Engine Engineering has left its mark for years in the small category of the World Championship, whether at the time 125cc or Moto3.
Here is a brief account of his feats of arms...
In 2001: First appearance of a motorcycle
Engines engineering, in the Spanish championship (CEV).
Tellingly, it already appears under another brand,
Rieju in this case, a small Spanish brand in decline, best known for having won in 80cc with a certain Carlos Checa...
La moto n’a rien d’espagnol, et pas grand-chose d’italien non-plus,
puisqu’il s’agit d’une base Honda agrémentée de quelques
améliorations “maison” essentiellement situées dans les éléments en
polyester.
In 2002: The motorcycles are lined up under their real name (Engines Engineering) and always shine, occasionally in CEV, but above all win the Italian national title with Fabrizio Lai as a pilot. Alessio Aldrovandi, the second driver, achieved less success but still a nice podium in Albacete.
Fabrizio Lai
On November 2002, XNUMX, during the Valencia GP, the team, in the person ofAlberto Strazzari, CEO ofEngines Engineering, announces its participation in the world championship on behalf of Malaguti, and presents his motorcycle repainted yellow for the occasion. He also announced a completely new motorcycle, with disc intake and an exhaust valve (in fact, this would not come until many years later).
In 2003: Alongside a new Italian title won by Fabrizio Lai (after three victories in CIV), the bikes are now entered in the World Cup with the help of the
Semprucci team under the name Malaguti. In fact, the Semprucci team had a place in the GP, unlike Malaguti and an agreement was reached to allow the yellow motorcycles to line up in the Grand Prix.
The latter are equipped with a new fairing, much prettier with its triangular air intake, and controlled by Fabrizio Lai et Julian Simon.
The latter finished in 25th and 29th place respectively.
Julian Simon
The technical director of the Semprucci team is then a certain Jorg Seel...
The coup was achieved by Lai who, in Assen and in difficult conditions, managed to score his first points, and also the first points for the Italian brand, by finishing 14th.
The machine was able to shine thanks to the rain but the engine problems are persistent and, at the end of the season, Lai will leave for Gilera, without waiting for the testing of a new engine in the final rounds of the CEV.
2004: Malaguti
always relies on the Semprucci team and participates again in the world championship.
The structure nevertheless changes with the arrival of the former technical director of Derbi, Olivier Liégeois, and his right arm, Gerard Petit (editor’s note: at Derbi, Olivier leaves while
John Thiel arrives to design the RSA engine).
Olivier Liégeois
Jorg Seel nevertheless remains in the Italian structure.
This juxtaposition will have a (adverse) impact on the results throughout the GP adventure, because, in the interest of finding solutions, we will tend to disperse ourselves a little; most of the time the two bikes used different engines, all from the Honda philosophy but developed on one side by Olivier Liégeois and on the other by
Jorg Seel...
At the start of the season, on the Liégeois side, we continued the work carried out on the Derbiex-Lorenzo
to melt new cylinders to boost… (editor’s note: as a reminder, the Derbi engine is then a copy of Honda but the only common part is the gearbox)
The other motorcycle is equipped with casings cut from the mass (Seel).
In short, we are witnessing a waltz of parts which will not stop for years: the two different engines change at each race, the motorcycles too and it is impossible to follow the developments precisely.
On the pilot side, with Manuel Manna as a teammate, Gabor Talmacsi obtains a place as first driver after having been neglected the previous year in favor of Steve JenknerAmong Aprilia.
At the end of 2003, aerodynamic tests took place in the wind tunnel of the NAMI institute in Moscow, following a joint venture.
These will result in a thinner saddle.
Talmacsi's first rides in January, still with the old saddle
If the Hungarian manages to shine occasionally (in particular in Portugal, Japan and Spain), the Italian will not score any points.
During the year, we studied and developed a tubular frame.
It will be tested by Talmacsi during the GP at Mugello.
In 2005: still under the name of Malaguti, but with a new tiger livery that will make them famous, the motorcycles are aligned with Michele Pirro et Gioele Pellino.
Michele Pirro
We align the tubular steel frame but despite numerous welding sessions at the rear of the boxes, to remove or add pieces of tubes, the motorcycles remain undriveable, mainly because of too much rigidity, and are stored at the end of three races. We take out the aluminum frames.
Ces recherches qui partent un peu tout azimut sont un peu, et resteront, la “marque de fabrique” d’EnginesEngineering; in total, a lot of money will be spent, with very little results...
During the Italian GP at Mugello, the two motorcycles sport a variant of the tiger livery in the national colors to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Bologna firm. The two pilots make an appearance in blue, the color of the royal family of Savoy.
From the German GP, the very young Sascha Hommel will replace Pellino for two races.
Sascha Hommel
The results are meager since only three points will be brought back to Bologna at the end of an active but complicated season.
Note that during this year, ex-GP tubular frame motorcycles are participating in various FSBK (Albi), CEV (Valence and Jerez) and CIV events, notably with Jules Cluzel and the Villiers Team Competition Karim Djaouk.
Jules finishing second in a round of the CIV (Mugello) and Having distinguished himself at the MotoGP Academy, he will appear in the team managed by Nicola Casadei replacing Pirro for the last two GPs (Türkiye and Valencia).
At the end of 2005, the collaboration between Olivier Liégeois and the Italians stop; financial differences for the first, lack of results for the second.
Olivier Liégeois has, however, started to adapt a rotating disk to his engine but the system which uses a belt at the end of the crankshaft presents neither reliability nor performance.
EnginesEngineering will then call for help Jorg Seel, who left to run in IDM and CEV, to continue the project.
Shortly after, we mourned the death of Gerard Petit, fidèle partenaire du Belge depuis les années “Play Life”.
In 2006: the team changes riders, the motorcycles change fairings and liveries, and Malaguti
now relies on the structure ofAjo Motorsport.
The latter also brings its two titular pilots,
Tomoyoshi Koyama and Alexis Masbou. The Japanese will bring 49 points to the Italian team despite an interruption between Barcelona and the Sachsenring due to a broken wrist.
The Frenchman will also have to stop at the British GP to recover after numerous falls.
Alexis Masbou
Nico Vivarelli et Hiroaki Kuzuhara will be his replacements.
Kuzuhara
In the end, a lot of money will have been injected into the adventure, with very few results to come.
Mr. Malaguti stops the costs there.
In 2007: The motorcycles are not running and are stored.
2008:Engines Engineering, décidément très fort dans la recherche de gros commanditaires (l’avenir le confirmera), “décroche” la firme chinoise Loncin. The motorcycles are repainted red and two regular riders are re-hired, Jules cluzel et Alexis Masbou.
On the technical side, Oliver Liégeois still participates in the development of the old Honda-based engine (he adapts KTM valves and lays the foundations of a brand new rotating disc engine, a copy of the Derbi RSA designed by Jan Thiel).
Christian Boudinot joins the adventure, as well as Tiziano Altabella (chief mechanic) currently found at Sky VR46.
Alas, once again, Liégeois leaves the ship, this time at the start of the season, and will never return.
La Loncin suffers from both a lack of performance and reliability.
The year was catastrophic and only Alexis earned an unfortunate 4 points at Le Mans.
Anecdotally, Josep Rodríguez competed in the last two rounds of the CEV on an Italian-Chinese machine.
In 2009: At EnginesEngineering, we have high hopes for this year, especially since an Indian sponsor (Mahindra) came to buy the company and join the Chinese of Loncin on a fairing now partially chromed…
Jules cluzel gone to Mateoni, it's the old couple Koyama-Masbou which replenishes.
The new rotating disc engine is occasionally used but it turns out to be as fragile as its counterpart based on the Honda. Little by little, we adapt parts to it Aprilia but nothing helps and the season is, once again, very disappointing despite the pressure put on his troops by Nicholas Casadei.
During the season, Alexis Masbou was ousted in favor of Jakub Kornfeil.
Finally, Tomoyoshi Koyama earns 17 points.
At the end of the year, the Chinese did not renew the contract which, however, was for three years.
In 2010: Never mind!
Engines Engineering
then resurrects the brand Lambretta !
A lick of paint, quite nice by the way, and that's it!
Michael Van der Mark et Marco Ravaioli are the two pilots.
Danny Kent will ride in Valencia.
No points scored this season...
In 2011: The Indians of
Mahindra, already present since 2009, are taking up the financial torch and
Engines Engineering presents… a Malaguti tubular 2005 dressed with the 2006 fairing and repainted in black and orange!!!!
When we say that Italians have business sense…
Finally, we will again use frames and engines derived from Honda, to obtain slightly improved results!
Danny Webb et Marcel schrotter will bring 24 and 36 points respectively, which can be explained, in addition to their talent, by races that are generally slower than in the years 2007/2008 then 2010.
Danny Webb
Marcel schrotter
In 2012:Mahindra, and this is undoubtedly a real opportunity, is starting from scratch with the abandonment of the 125cc and the advent of the Moto3 category.
You can store the countless versions of the improved Honda in the museum and operate a motorcycle with an engine
Oral designed by Mario Forghieri, former Ferrari F1 chief engineer (right in photo).
The motorcycle instead uses a cycle part Aprilia, what the engine was initially designed for, adopts a tubular chassis (ah, the old demons...) which seems straight out of the workshops of Franco Moro...
The pilots are always Danny Webb et Marcel schrotter.
2013 : Mahindra gets tired of the exoticism of its Italian employees and shifts its Grand Prix program to the Swiss precision of Suter. But nothing is lost for all that Engine Engineering which then appears proudly on the fairing of the Kymco Oral... the cycle part of which comes from Aprilia !
A proven chassis part allows both drivers, Fabio DiGiannantonio et Lorenzo Dalla Porta, to finish respectively 10th and 11th in the Italian championship.
2014 : A brand new motorcycle is built and participates in the Italian championship. It is presented in April at Mugello. The season begins with Fabio Di Giannantonio et Stefano Valtulini but the two pilots will leave during the year for more efficient skies.
Riccardo Moretti then scored a point in the last race and finished 26th in the championship.
In 2015: La Kymco Oral, where the sign always appears Engine Engineering, sees itself equipped with a new framework at the end of the season. The air inlets are now made like the
Honda RW, passing through the sides. The base this time is an FTR.
Simone Mazzola et Lorezno Gabellini are responsible for piloting the motorcycles. With 57 points scored, the first one did pretty well and finished 8th in the championship. Kymco finished 4th in the manufacturer ranking, behind Mahindra Peugeot,
RMU et TM.
2016: Engine Engineering no longer appears on the Kymco Oral. At the competition level, the Italian company is only invested in the Alpes Adria 125cc Championship which it wins.
Conclusion: After a decade dedicated to testing all-out technical solutions and without real results,
Engines Engineering aurait
pu choisir le moteur Honda NSF, apparemment le meilleur compromis
coût/performance/fiabilité, pour faire ses débuts en Moto3, et
couler ainsi des jours heureux en se reposant sur le talent de ses
deux pilotes. Ce n’est apparemment pas la philosophie “maison”
et l’on a préféré repartir sur des solutions plus exotiques, tant
moteur que châssis, bien que, jusqu’à présent, la firme italienne
n’ait jamais réellement prouvé son savoir-faire à résoudre ce genre
d’équations.
Evil tongues could therefore be led to suppose that a design office, as is
Engines Engineering, lives by charging incessant development fees…
The competition is moreover only incidental for the Italian company which has at the same time developed a real design and engineering office for the industry.
Photo credits: MotoGP.com, Pit-Lane.Biz, Cybermotard and DR
