A few days ago the Aprilia All Stars was held at the Misano Circuit. A real party in which the brand’s riders end up competing in a race with one of the Noale brand’s production sports motorcycles. On this occasion the bike chosen was the Aprilia RS660 Extrema, without any type of preparation beyond removing mirrors and headlights.
Come on, what most of us do when we want to enter the circuit: fiber fairing, metal hoses and tires. The question is, without changing anything else about the bike such as the brake pump and calipers and, especially, the suspension, is a current sports bike fast?
We must not forget that the Aprilia RS660 Extrema has 100 HP, a power that many will think is fair, but that in the right hands can cause havoc. And that, precisely, is what Miguel Ángel Oliveira did with her, since he stopped the clock at 1’45”467. And that without having first gotten on the bike or even tested it on the track.
That’s a great time, so much so that he stopped the clock 14 seconds behind what he did with his MotoGP in the San Marino GP last season. It’s as if in Jerez, with a standard sports car, you stop the clock at approximately 1.52. That is to say, a truly competitive time for a motorcycle that you can then ride on the street.
If instead of comparing ourselves with the premier class those times are compared with a Moto2, which although more powerful is closer, the difference with the pole is only 9 seconds. And now we compare them with a Moto3, which will have a little less edge than the Aprilia, but which have many other advantages, the difference is less than four seconds.
Every second of difference between an SBK and a standard sports car is equivalent to a new motorcycle!
We do not have many references that could be valid, because for example the WSBK that was in Misano this past week was running in FP1 at 11 seconds. And, of course, all these differences may seem abysmal.
On the track they are, but we are talking about prototype motorcycles that in the case of MotoGP have an almost incalculable value, while in SBK we are going above the 150,000 euros of the regulations, compared to a motorcycle that you can have in your garage. for just over 13,000 euros.
That is, the second improvement compared to an SBK would be equivalent to the full cost of the motorcycle. Now let your imagination fly, think about small improvements that could be made to the bike in sections such as suspensions, brakes, lighten as much as possible and gain some power by tuning a little and let Miguel Ángel train for a couple of days or three with it .
There would be no doubt that a sports car like the RS660 Extrema is extremely fast on the track…
