You make my point. This generation has in many ways been neutered by their dependence on electrons. So they'll also be less capable of fixing or maintaining their toys without assistance which means some of them wouldn't be able to afford them at all, so you continue to shrink your customer base. Do you think monster or supersport parts are cheaper? Volkswagen beetles were some of the biggest POS relative to reliability. Everyone remembers them fondly (except me who was always working on his sisters for free) because parts were cheap and they were easy to work on. Head drop a valve seat? No problem because a remanufactured head was the cost of a case of beer. If you are building a marginally reliable product and charging exorbitant prices for parts and service thru an incompetent service network can this be a good longterm strategy? I suggest they keep winning GP's.
Did they actually reduce overlap on the 25's? They added lift that's where the HP increase came from. As you increase lift while holding the duration constant, which is what they do with the R cams as the timing is pretty much the same as the regular V4 cams, the flanks of the cams have to be more aggressive which equals shorter guide life. And there's a mechanical limit to the valve acceleration vs overlap. But more cam equals more power so when the motors deristricted the new ones will be faster. I've been looking at the V4 heads, really nice. We'll probably see yet greater lifts from the production cams as improving those heads will be tough. I wonder when they'll go to the R injectors but maybe they can't get a 1103 to pass smog with the big injectors.
Let's not bring reason and logic into this.
From the guy who thinks a V2 has "AI."
From somebody who actually understands engineering I have an interest in valvetrain dynamics. Also I find the change in valvetrain metallurgy interesting.
In all humility (ok not really) I suspect if Ducati paid me enough and rented me a villa in Italy I'd come and show them how to reduce their quality costs (my lack of ability to speak/understand Italian might be problematic). The issue with most management in plenty of companies is lack of breadth of skillset. And those with the narrowest skill sets always seem to have the least to do and consequently are always the worse political actors internally. The need to constantly raise prices to maintain your margins is sloppy management. Let the derision begin but I have run manufacturing/Operations in multiple tech companies (and brought two failing ones back to profitability).
