K1600GT/GTL Engine Development

[Kent Niederhofer]

The article that follows chronicles the development of the K1600GT/GTL engine by UK-based technical consulting firm, Ricardo plc: http://www.ricardo.com/Documents/RQ%...RQ_Q2_2011.pdf

An earlier Ricardo Quarterly documents the development of the K1300x engines. Enjoy the reading.

Kent

[dbrick]

Thanks, Kent, this is fascinating. We all know that BMW outsources parts and subassemblies, but the mothership is very quiet about outsourcing engineering and design. The lawyer in me was surprised that Ricardo's contract with BMW permitted them to publish this...but the rider in me was very interested to read it.

[Vagabird]

If I did the math right, they are claiming 52.5 mpg at a constant 56 mph for the GT. That sounds close to my experience of racing one around the Colorado mountains and getting about 48 mpg. Pretty impressive for so powerful an engine.

- Kate

[Kent Niederhofer]

Thanks, Kent, this is fascinating. We all know that BMW outsources parts and subassemblies, but the mothership is very quiet about outsourcing engineering and design. The lawyer in me was surprised that Ricardo's contract with BMW permitted them to publish this...but the rider in me was very interested to read it.

David,

I can assure you that the collaboration between BMW and Ricardo was exceptionally high and their "hand" was felt throughout the program. It is exceptionally challenging to develop a lightweight engine with such tremendous performance but even more so to package it in an environment as confined as a motorcycle chassis and then have it look like a work of art.

Enjoy your 1600!

Kent

[dbrick]

Enjoy your 1600!

Kent,

Thanks for the good wishes, but my interest is academic: I don't actually own or aspire to a K16. I'm a twin guy.

[Semper_Fi]

It was interesting to note that they were developing the 6 at the same time as the 1300

Great read - thanks for the information