British High Revving Speedway Motorcycle Engine

The aim of the project is to design, develop and test a novel design of 500c, single cylinder motorcycle engine for the Speedway, Grass track and Ice Speedway markets. This will involve the overall design of a reduced stroke, increased bore engine, one piece crank shaft, use of a balance shaft will be explored, high compression ratio piston head design, use of a programmable ignition system and use of a dry sump configuration. The engine will need to produce in excess of 80BHP and rev to over 11,000 rpm with an appropriate power distribution curve. The overall list of the engine configuration will be discussed in the technical aspects of this proposal.
The deliverable of the project will be a fully designed, developed and tested prototype engine ready for productionisation and launch onto the UK speedway scene. This will offer the market a very real alternative to the existing two engine suppliers, it will offer riders a novel higher performance engine with vastly improved reliability and enable them to tune the engine to suit the tracks and ambient conditions to be raced in.
These are well established markets that are steadily growing and attract participants from across the world. Currently the engine supply industry is dominated by two key players – Jawa (from Czech Republic) and GM (from Italy). These companies have been producing the same style and concept of engine since the 1940’s. Whilst there have been some reliability improvements over this time, the engines remain essentially of 1940’s technology. Competitors have had no option that to buy from this duopoly which creates stagnation in the industry and diminishes innovation within the sector.