In the very rich program offered by the Sunday Ride Classic June 11-12 features an exceptional exhibition of French Grand Prix motorcycles.
Obviously, the Mistral M610 built by the Tech3 team will hold a special place there, especially since its creator, Guy Coulon, will be present at the event to share his knowledge and passion.
However, having experienced it many times, we already know that the man will be extremely sought after by the public who find it a unique opportunity to approach, greet or even converse with the professionals of the competition. So we took the lead and asked Guy Coulon to tell us the story of the Mistral M610, what he was willing to do with his kindness and his usual frankness…
In nine years of operation, has the Mistral evolved a lot?
« Yes, everything has been changed, even if it is in detail. Finally, in detail… the more or less important details. There have been a lot of developments. We made a big change for the 2018 model, but we didn't build it. We drew something interesting, which hasn't been used much since, even if it's in the idea for some people. We didn't do it because from the winter of 2017/2018 we had already signed the agreements with KTM for 2019. We knew that in 2019, we would ride Triumph with KTMs, so in 2018 we made new motorcycles but which were 2017, with very few changes, only small things. But as the Triumph engine is still quite different, particularly in terms of the engine mounts, we had planned to launch what we wanted to do with the 2018 Honda engine to prepare the 2019 Triumph engine. So it didn't work. been done but the plans exist »
And we can't know what it is...
« Uuuuuhhhh… Mmmm… No! We're not going to dwell on that. »
In the end, the Mistral still won a Grand Prix with Yuki Takahashi, and brought a lot of experience: what assessment do you draw from that?
« Yes, a victory and a few podiums. In any case, we learned how to do things and that enriched the mechanics and the guys who worked on it, which would not have been the case if we had used a motorcycle from elsewhere. When you're faced with the problem of riding a bike and finding solutions to solve the problems, it's more rewarding than waiting for developments to come by themselves. On the other hand, when you make your bikes for yourself, the huge problem is that you generally have enough information to make an evolution after four races. And if it's to make your own motorcycles, that would mean that you throw away all your parts, you make new ones, so you would lose a lot of money and you don't have the budget to do that. Whereas if you are a manufacturer who doesn't ride, but who sells his bikes to teams, in the lot there are always teams who have a little money, so your interest is to make as many developments as possible possible so that we can buy back as many parts as possible. So in a way, it's a double penalty: that is to say that we had the information to make an improvement but we put it to ourselves by saying "we'll try later", and five more races Later we had other ideas, so we summed it all up and said to ourselves “that will be for next year’s bike”.
So little by little, you lose more and more time. It's the same problem as teams who don't have satellite teams in MotoGP! You are always much more in doubt about your performance and you collect much less information. When you have half the board, you collect a lot of information, and there are always one or two who are in front, so they already have solutions, so that gives you arguments and that gives you confidence. compared to the others, telling them “with these settings, they are on pole, so it’s up to you”. You can do that, whereas if you're all alone in your corner, it's very complicated to sort things out: is it the rider not going too well or the bike not going well? too much ? It is complicated.
So already, when you have four motorcycles, if there are three behind and one who is in the front line, well, that helps with thinking. For this reason, it would be completely illusory to believe that when you ride your own motorcycle you have a faster reaction time and that you will be able to make developments and change frame from one week to the next, which is what Kenny Roberts said when he did the KR. But hey, he faced the same problem and it disappeared quickly, even faster than us. Especially since, if you have the means, it is not a good idea to want to change things too quickly. Precisely, you have to do it when you don't have enough references. »
Did you discover that in the heat of the action?
« Yes, we mostly suffered from it, but we had an idea that it could happen. I think we did quite well in 2010 where we could have won several races, notably in Brno. But it doesn't matter, because precisely, in the changes to be made for everyone between the supposed power and the real power, we reacted quite well. That's why we won quite early. Besides, this would have to be verified but I think we won a race before Kalex. We reacted quite quickly, because we had to after what had happened, but then you run out of steam in terms of budget and quantity of work. Because when you've worked for weeks making parts and you throw everything away to make others, or you have to make others to replace them and you can't do anything with them, it's complicated . If you're doing it to sell them, fine, but if you're doing it on a shoestring, that's another story. At the beginning, it was more about having good ideas than the budget, we could get by, but then you clearly run out of steam. An example, in general it was me who made the tanks. I managed to make a tank in a good 12 hours, between 12 and 15 hours. We made 100 tanks over the 9-year period, because it's a part that suffers when things fall, and we were always six ahead! So, just that, you see… as soon as you move something on this kind of bike, you generally have to change the tank. If you have 6 tanks ahead and you say to yourself “we need to change it or modify it”, and you have 10 hours left for each, where do you place your 10 hours? The tank is not expensive, it costs nothing in terms of materials, but it costs in time, and the time has to be cleared. And everything is like that! Basically, over the nine years, we made 31 chassis, 60 swing arms and 100 tanks. »
Where are these motorcycles today?
« They are everywhere! Of the 31, there are still some close to 25 years old in activity or in collections. Only 6 no longer exist because they have often been repaired: even the frames have been dismantled again to make parts and reassemble them. In a solid frame, you have parts that are welded together. Basically, the chassis was made in 7 pieces, and we frequently had to disassemble the chassis entirely, redo one or two parts, put it back on the marble and re-weld it, therefore remaking a new chassis which started again. zero. Obviously, these are not counted as additional chassis: even at the end, we could line up our 31 chassis, some of which were very damaged were not repaired and must still be there, but not that many, we must have three or four, no more, that have not been deemed repairable. »
What is the most positive point of this Tech3 experience?
« As I explained to you, it was interesting to do, including for the MotoGP chief mechanics who worked on it, because it teaches you things and it helps you do your MotoGP the week of 'after when you are on the field. It helps you to have arguments with the engineers who make the MotoGP chassis, and you can talk with them saying “no, we did that and we got that”. So you can compare a little bit what everyone has done.
»
Was this followed a little by Yamaha?
« No not at all ! One day, I said to the man I knew well “do you want to see the Moto2 we did?” » and he replied “no, no, I’m not interested”. He was the same one I took to see the first modern BMW flat twins with the trellis frame and single-link, because he also worked on road bikes. There was one in the paddock and I took him to see it because the concept is still very rational and very well done. I had taken him to see her almost by force, but the thing had still caught his attention. But Moto2, no (laughs). »
Of these 31 motorcycles, we imagine that we will see one at the Sunday Ride Classic…
« Yes, there will be one.
»
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Florian Marino for the first run at Lédenon (1/12/2009)…
Seen on the SRC:
