During the last tests at Sepang, an extended exhaust for the front cylinders appeared, first on Aoyama's machine then on those of Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa.
We will leave aside the aesthetic aspects (to each their own tastes!) and even safety aspects (isn't that at least as dangerous as fins in the event of an impact?) to only focus on technique.
Shifting the lengths of the exhausts is not a first for Honda, and the Japanese firm had already used this technique in the past to make some of its VFRs more docile.
Schematically, the length of an exhaust determines a speed where the engine will operate best. By lengthening the exhausts of the two front cylinders, we lower the speed a little where these front cylinders will work best and, overall, we obtain an engine that is certainly a little less powerful, but more "rounded", more "smooth".
And that's exactly what Honda drivers need, who, for two years, have always complained about a brutal propulsion system which handicaps them with a lack of grip when exiting corners despite its "electronic crutches".
During the off-season, the arrival of the engine “almost Big Bang” seemed to have fixed things a little, but not enough in the eyes of Marc Marquez who spoke on the subject on the evening of the first day of testing in Sepang: “It seems that the new engine is noticeably different at low revs. It might be a little smoother, but the timing is more or less the same. And we still have problems exiting corners, with grip and other things. And it might be a little faster in a straight line, but it still doesn't work perfectly in the straight. So we still need to understand the potential of this engine. »
The following days, the Honda driver tried the extended exhaust (still with the new engine) and the times improved significantly, to the point of concluding this first 2017 test in third position, but with the best board racing simulation !
Obviously, all the credit does not go to the exhaust alone, but visibly, it contributed to the improvement in times.
However, Honda has not yet decided which final specification of its engine will be chosen to be frozen throughout 2017, since all the drivers have been involved and have tried different versions of the new engine, by Cal Crutchlow to Jack Miller, via Dani Pedrosa.
As a result, Honda will not make its final choice until the final pre-season test, in Qatar. This will leave just two weeks for the Tokyo manufacturer to assemble the engines to be sealed for its 5 drivers before the first Grand Prix of the season.
