These are the first pictures of the new Ilmor X3 MotoGP machine, which will be raced for the first time in this weekend's Portuguese Grand Prix at Estoril.
The 800cc racer, built to 2007 engine regulations, is the brainchild of Ilmor co-founder Mario Illien and former grand prix rider Eskil Suter of Suter Racing Technology (SRT). Illien has used his world championship winning
F1 engine experience to design the machine's V4 powerplant, with Suter - who has previously designed Kawasaki's MotoGP chassis - in charge of the twin-spar aluminium frame.
The X3 uses a V4 engine configuration - like all of the future 2007 MotoGP machines - and features four-valves per cylinder, twin-cams, gear-driven camshafts and pneumatically operated valves.
Former 500cc GP winner Garry McCoy will ride the Michelin-shod bike this weekend at Estoril, but faces a tough task against the 990cc opposition. However, the Ilmor SRT team's main goal will be to prove that it is serious about its two-wheel intentions and so secure the backing needed to run an intended two-rider team in the full 2007 world championship.
"Over the years I've followed
MotoGP, visited one or two races a year and have generally been fascinated by the technology - especially when it went to four-strokes - and we wanted to find a way to participate," explained Illien. "I'd like to thank Carmelo (Ezpeleta - Dorna) for giving us the chance to be here. He gave us this fantastic chance to come here with the bike.
"Obviously it's very early in the programme and we're on a very steep learning curve - so don't expect too much from us here - but we want to learn and prepare ourselves for next year, when we want to be competitive," he added. "It's been a big task (to set this project up), especially as we had a very small group of people working on it - both from our side and SRT. Both companies put our own resources into it and so we also had to manage that to make sure we had the money to go racing here."
