The following interview was conducted with Mark Taylor of FTR Moto2 early in 2011. MotoMatters.com visited FTR's factory in Buckingham last year and spoke to Taylor about the development of the British Moto2 chassis builder's radically revised fairing, and the role of computational fluid dynamics in designing and verifying the aero packages of racing motorcycles. Taylor and FTR graciously discussed their work in some depth, and offered us a glimpse into exactly what goes into designing a racing motorcycle.
When the 2011 FTR Moto2 machine made its debut at the Valencia Moto2 tests at the start of last year, the one thing that caught the eye was the seemingly huge circular air intake on the front of the bike. The large hole, quickly dubbed "the gaping maw", was a radical departure from the current paddock fashion of letterbox-style air intakes, with long, thin, and often nipped in the middle the shape gracing most racing motorcycles at present.
So why did FTR decide to buck the trend and go with the great big hole on the front of the fairing? We spoke to FTR's engineering guru Mark Taylor at the Moto2 chassis manufacturer's Buckinghamshire base and put exactly that question to him.
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