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The Yamaha YZ450F and YZR-M1 motorcycles are the
pinnacle of Yamaha’s engineering development in the quest for victory on
and off road in the global Grand Prix Championships. Whilst the current
machines are both developed under the same design philosophy it is rare
to ever see them together. Yamaha Racing took this unique opportunity
to photograph the thoroughbreds side by side.
The machines are testimony to Yamaha’s ‘family’
approach to motorcycle development with shared principles and philosophy
in design producing very different machines from a single source.
Cutting edge technical partners are also shared between the two
motorcycle development paths, Akrapovic for example has proved to be the
best possible performance partner in developing exhaust systems for
both the YZR-M1 and the YZ450F.
Whilst the dirt and the tarmac require very
different machines to be competitive Yamaha retains the same philosophy
of development in both areas, exemplifying the company’s spirit of
development in the quest to create not only Championship dominating
machines but also innovation for the customers of the future.
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The 2013 YZR-M1, the M1 standing for ‘Mission One’,
is the latest incarnation of an incredible machine that first broke
cover in 2002 as MotoGP made the move from 500cc bikes.
Yamaha’s design philosophy has continued to move
forward and evolve at the cutting edge of design off-road, most notably
with some serious ‘forward’ thinking. When the current engine design
development reached its limits Yamaha stepped outside the box and made a
bold move. A revolutionary design change saw rearward and backward
facing cylinders move the mass centralization, bringing the heaviest
part of the bike closer to the middle for flickability.
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The development doesn’t stop in Japan; Yamaha is
very flexible in its approach to the advancement of the YZ off-road
machines. A partnership with Michele Rinaldi in Italy started in 1992
has earned numerous victories and consistently class leading bikes. In
1995 the Yamaha Rinaldi Research and Development program (YRRD) was
founded, developing race-winning parts for the then two-stroke machines.
Working to maximise the regulations in the racing class that opened up
different possibilities for development, Rinaldi were able to develop a
completely new crankcase for the YZ450F, gaining valuable performance
benefits at the track during the 2001 season.
The collaboration to develop race-winning machines
delivered Yamaha the first ever four-stroke world title in 1999 with
Andrea Bartolini and is further exemplified by Stefan Everts total
domination over six seasons from 2001 to 2006, including four back to
back YZ450FM titles. Everts has since been joined by David Philippaerts
who stormed to Championship victory in 2008 on the YZ450F.
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Yamaha’s cutting edge design philosophy in racing
remains very much focused on benefit not just on track but for future
customers on the road. The OWP3 M1 engine developed for the 2004 MotoGP
season featured the crossplane crankshaft for the first time. Valentino
Rossi won the opening race with the bike at Welkom in South Africa,
going on to win the title with a further eight victories. The MotoGP
legend would cement the M1’s place in history with a further three
premier class world titles. Current world champion Jorge Lorenzo would
then add another two titles to this, giving Yamaha six MotoGP titles in
the last ten years. Between them they helped Yamaha make history, taking
the triple crown of rider, team and manufacturer titles for three
consecutive years from 2008 to 2010.
The YZR-M1’s technology has filtered to Yamaha’s
production machines and the YZF-R1 appeared in 2009 with the crossplane
crankshaft technology. American rider Ben Spies took Yamaha’s first
World Superbike Championship victory with the new R1 in the same year,
crowning the development journey from MotoGP prototype in 2004 to
production dominance in 2009.
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