WORLD ENDURANCE ON AN MV AGUSTA

Were you at Brands Hatch for the British round of the World Endurance Championship on June 9th? The Mechanical Velvet team was: not to compete - no, as humble novices in British Endurance we can't aspire to these dizzy heights yet. We were there to spy on the Maxim team, who have entered an F4 in World Endurance this year after a very successful 2000 campaign in Belgian endurance. As far as we know, they are the only people, apart from Mechanical Velvet, racing an F4 anywhere in the world. We were desperate to find out what secrets their bike contained. According to paddock gossip, they have been covertly testing a factory motor, kicking out 160 bhp at the rear wheel; a prelude to an official factory team in WSB or MotoGP sometime in the future.

So we sent our management team - two beautiful young ladies by the name of Claire and Jemma, who can talk their way past any marshal or security guard in the world - to penetrate the heavily guarded pit lane and the mysteries of the Maxim garage. They soon located their prime target, Steven Casaer, the number one rider and the engineer behind most of the bike's modifications. But no subterfuge was needed - Steven was so charming, and so keen to share information with us that he even let the girls take his rider's pass home so they could get me in for a close look the next day.

The Maxim garage is a temple to the F4 - tools and spares are arranged as carefully as the clothes in an haute couture emporium, and everything, right down to the fuel man's fireproof hat, proudly bears the MV logo. The whole impression is 100% factory.

But the truth about the Maxim bike is that it has no factory support - it's an ordinary F4 with very few modifications. Engine work is limited to slightly raised compression, a gas-flowed cylinder head and a little more overlap on the cam timing. The stock 4:2:1 headers have been replaced with a Lazer 4:1 system, which uses slightly wider tubing (I think!). The silencers are the factory race cans, part number 90376, just like the ones your dealer sells. The chip is custom made. The rear shock is from Wilbers (also known as Technoflex - see www.technoflex.de). Steven says it's "better and cheaper than Ohlins", and I'm not going to argue with him, as he is a factory test rider who specialises in suspension! The forks have been revalved and fitted with harder springs (9.5). The wheels are magnesium, from the F4 Oro. A choice of Renthal rear sprockets is used by adapting the sprocket carrier from a Ducati 916. The loom is handmade by Steven, saving a few grammes. And that's it - the only carbon fibre component on the bike is the front mudguard, and with 130 or 140 bhp at the rear wheel (depending on whose dyno the bike is on), the Maxim MV power to weight ratio is nothing special, this was most apparent when watching the bike haul itself lethargically out of the tight uphill corner where the Brands full circuit parts company from the short one. And yet the other riders we met in the paddock all said the same thing: "that MV is fast." The answer, as Mechanical Velvet found in our race at Bishops Court, is in the cornering. Many riders had the experience of seeing Stephen come by on the entry to a corner because he was able to take a tighter line and keep his mid-corner speed high. He qualified 20th out of 34 in 1:33.6, with pole going to "Mr Endurance", Brian Morrison, who did 1:29.8 on the inevitable Suzuki. (All the top 8 qualifiers were Suzukis!)

Numbers, numbers….endurance racing is all about numbers, and the truly startling number during this race was 10 - the position in which Maxim finished! No crashes, consistent riding hour after hour by Steven and his trusty co-pilot, Danny Scheers, efficient pit work, no mechanical trouble…I'll say that again: no mechanical trouble. The F4 ran faultlessly throughout, just as it did at Brno and Le Mans. And the engine isn't even blueprinted! This fact alone should have every Ducati owner rushing to his MV dealer with his credit card.

So what next? How can we get Steven and Danny on the podium? If you own an MV, would you like to see it beating those Suzukis in bike racing's toughest and most glorious test, the Bol d'Or, on September 15th? We would! So we have encouraged our sponsor, QB Carbon, to sponsor Maxim as well, with a full set of carbon fibre bodywork, right down to the airbox and high performance intake tubes. QB will also develop a carbon fibre headlamp shell, for use with the stock headlight in night-time racing (or on the road) and a bracket on which to mount the instrument panel and nose cone when the headlamp is removed, for daytime racing. The result will be a massive weight saving, plus, according to Steven's calculations, a possible extra 2 bhp just from the air intakes. And if all that doesn't give Stephen and Danny a few seconds a lap, I'll eat my Arai.

Of course, all this costs money: John Merrill at QB has already dug deep - very deep - into his wallet to help Mechanical Velvet, and now he's spending more to help Maxim. How about you? Would you like to get involved? Maxim's riders are good enough to convert more money into more speed: it's as simple as that. Their bike is still quite close to stock, but if you'd like to help make it a bit more special, please contact me at nickh@4thcontact.co.uk. I'll contact Steven, and we'll work out a hospitality package for you at Spa, the Bol, the Nurburgring or Oschersleben. Hospitality is yet another aspect of racing which Maxim pride themselves on, and you couldn't find a friendlier, more generous bunch in the paddock. Believe me, you'll be delighted you joined the team. Imagine watching an MV with your name on the side take on the factory teams at the world's most historic races!

Race Report - Nick Horley