Case Studies		Team Inzane Laverda
CCM Motorcycles		Jenkins Motorsport Developments
Barwell Motorsport		Ratt Racing
Oaktec

Company

Team Inzane Laverda

Additional Participants

Two Wheel Technics - Italian racing motorcycle specialist, responsible for chassis preparation and race set-up.

Baines Racing - formerly raced a similar machine and vastly experienced in engine preparation for all Italian makes.

BSD - BSD provided the vital dynamometer set-up runs that allowed Inzane to re-map the fuel system for running on bioethanol E85.

eBIO - The European Bioethanol Fuels Association - Founded in 2005, eBIO serves as the voice of the European bioethanol fuel industry, providing advocacy, authoritative analysis and important industry data to its members, the European Institutions, strategic partners, the media and other opinion leaders.

Click here to see the Team Inzane Laverda page

Summary

In 2007, Peterborough based Team Inzane Laverda became the first team in the UK to compete in motorcycle road racing with a high performance bike running on E85, (a blend of 85% bioethanol and 15% petrol). The team's Italian Laverda Formula 650 machine competed in the 2007 UK Mini Twins Championship.

In its debut race at Snetteron on 7th July 2007, the Laverda ran faultlessly with team rider, Russell Joyner, achieving an excellent top ten finish despite minimal testing and development. The biofuel Laverda achieved three third places at the Mallory Park round and in the team's final race of this exploratory season, took pole position and finished second - demonstrating that competitiveness need not be at the expense of sustainability.

Key Facts

• Inzane was the first team to take advantage of a rule change by motorcycle racing governing body, the ACU, allowing commercially available biofuels
• The conversion to E85 was achieved with very minimal modification to the Laverda's engine as the rules for MiniTwins are very restrictive
• The fuel system modifications were carried out by the team itself, using only proprietary electronics and a laptop computer to re-map the fuelling
• Biofuel burns cooler than petrol, a considerable benefit for the Laverda's air-cooled engine in race conditions
• The team calculated that the sugar beet needed to produce the fuel used over a typical race weekend could be grown on just 10 square metres of land

Bioethanol is an alcohol produced by the fermentation and subsequent distillation of natural sugars found in carbohydrates for use as a combustible fuel with a lower water content differentiating it from normal alcohol. Produced from sustainable sources, bioethanol offers potential overall CO2 emission reductions in comparison to conventional fossil fuels.

The Challenge

The project objectives were to build a competitive motorcycle road race machine to take advantage of regulation changes in 2007, which permitted the use of commercially available biofuels in the UK Mini Twins Championship.

At the time, both team principals had exposure to the UK biofuels industry being employed by Associated British Foods, the operator of the UK's first such refinery in Norfolk. The project also aimed to demonstrate the sustainability of motorcycle racing through the successful use of a renewable fuel.

The Solution

The project commenced in Autumn 2006 when a suitable 'donor' machine was sourced. Although the conventional choice of machine for this category of racing is the Suzuki SV650, the Laverda was selected as a design which, when contemporary, was way ahead of its time. The chassis had been race developed and components of the highest quality had been used throughout in its construction. Being air-cooled, the Laverda was permitted to exceed the 650cc limit imposed on the watercooled bikes (it displaces 668cc). Key to the conversion to bioethanol was the machine's electronically controlled Magneti Marelli fuel injection system, which Inzane adapted for the increased fuelling required.

Lessons Learnt

As it was derived from a road bike, the Laverda carried a lot of equipment unnecessary for racing. To reduce weight, much of this was discarded, including lights, instruments, wiring harness, noise and vibration suppression material - totalling some six kilos. The elegant Italian bodywork was replaced with replica lightweight panels.

The central technical challenge for the conversation was to increase the rate of fuel flow through the standard injection system in order to produce the equivalent power characteristics to those achieved when burning the more energy dense petrol.

The technology used by Inzane to re-map the bike was a 'piggy back' ECU which makes re-mapping straightforward for any race team. It is a device that sits between the standard ECU and the injectors and simply increases the duration of each injection by the required amount. Inzane used a fully programmable 'Dynojet Power Commander' ECU, which has the added benefit of being able to tailor the fuelling to the individual bike when set up using a rolling road dynamometer.

A feature of the injection system is that adjustments can be made to the fuel mapping during testing by simply plugging a laptop into the bike. Similarly, after testing or racing the laptop can also download information collected by the bike's onboard data logging.

Benefits

Team Inzane Laverda quite literally broke new ground by introducing bioethanol to UK motorcycle road racing. Most of the technical challenges had to be met by the team principals themselves, but throughout they were grateful for the encouragement and recognition provided by EEMS. Early in the project, a visit to EEMS Campaign Partner Barwell Motorsport, when they were racing at Snetterton, provided some interesting insights into methods for preserving component life when in contact with alcohol fuels.

As 2007 was its inaugural racing season, the team set itself the goal of getting the bike running reliably and finishing some races, preferably within sight of other competitors. The achievement of three podium finishes at Mallory Park in September 2007 and a pole position and second place finish at Lydden Hill, exceeded all expectations for a team new to Mini Twins racing and with very limited resources. It admirably demonstrated the benefits offered by the use of alternative fuels in motorcycle road racing.

The Future

Having proved the basic technology and engineering for a bioethanol powered road race bike, the team now has to decide how to apply it for future seasons. The Inzane system could be applied to practically any fuel injection equipped race bike. Achieving the full benefits potentially available from alcohol fuel needs a race series that permits more radical engine tuning than in Mini Twins, where a 72bhp limit is strictly imposed.

Further information

Ian Calvert
Geoff Lancaster
Team Inzane Laverda

www.inzanelaverda.co.uk

Click here to view the Case Study as a PDF