MUGEN

2013.7.8

New challenge of the EV motorcycle racer!

Event Name : 2013 Isle of Man TT Races Fuelled by MONSTER ENERGY
Category : SES TT Zero Challenge
Distance : 37.73 miles (60.73km) × 1 lap
1st Practice : May 31st (Fri) Fine after cloudy 14°C
2nd Practice : June 1st (Sat) Fine after cloudy 15°C
3rd Practice : June 3rd (Mon) Fine 21°C
Race : June 5th (Wed) Fine 16.5°C

Result : 2nd place merely 1.6 seconds behind the champion

TEAM MUGEN took on the 2013 Isle of Man TT race Zero Challenge, held over the Mountain Course on the Isle of Man (Public road) from May 27th to June 7th, with the newly developed “Shinden Ni” whose rider, John McGuinness was the same as last year. The result was TEAM MUGEN were not able to capture the victory, however it was a very close 2nd place, just 1.672 seconds behind the winner.

Isle of Man TT races have been held since 1907 and are recorded as the oldest motorcycle race held on the public roads. Isle of Man is called “Holy site of the motorcycles” and motorcyclists from all over the world come to this event. It is not too much to say that the triumphs of Japanese motorcycle manufacturers at the Isle of Man TT contributed to the rapid growth of the Japanese motorcycle industry around the world.
The “TT Mountain circuit” is a round course of 60km renowned for being one of the most difficult courses in terms of both elevation changes and the numerous amount of corners encountered during a lap. The TT races are run in a time-trial format on public roads. The only opportunity for the riders to practice at race speeds on the real course is during the TT fortnight; therefore, for a rider to learn the course and to make a race strategy is regarded as quite difficult.

The race is held annually for 2 weeks from the end of May to the beginning of June. Practice runs and qualifying are carried out during the first week followed by 9 races, for 6 classes, including superbike, supersports, and sidecars, run during week 2.
TT Zero Challenge was started due to the public increasing strong interest in global environmental protection and alternative energy. This category has one doctrine; that of requiring zero emission from the machines during racing. To date participants have come from USA, India, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, and Isle of Man. The public interest is not only for the excitement of the motorcycle race, but also the technological innovations that TT Zero inspires.

On their debut in 2012 TEAM MUGEN took a highly creditable 2nd place; however, in pursuit of a better result for their return, through the past year TEAM MUGEN devoted themselves into renovating “Shinden” into a totally different machine - “Shinden Ni” with significant weight reductions to the motor and battery and an increase in power. Several tests were carried out in Japan to assess power and endurance, with the final tests conducted at the Jurby circuit on the Isle of Man with John McGuinness in order to arrive at a set-up to start the event.

May 31st (Fri)

1st Practice - 1st place
Lap time : 21 mins 25.639 secs
Average Speed : 105.650mph (=170.027km/h)

On Isle of Man at around this time of the year the sun does not set until around 9:30pm and during practice week the public roads are closed after 6pm and the practice runs start at 6:15pm.
The week started with unstable weather and it was difficult for the organizers to maintain the practice schedule but by the Friday May 31st the weather turned for the better and the bikes could run in almost perfect conditions. However practice was delayed by 45 minutes when a fire broke out in a house located alongside the course. Due to this unavoidable incident the first practice run of the TT Zero Challenge was almost cancelled, but just before the roads were scheduled to be reopened to the public, at 8:47pm the practice run started.

Riders competing in the other races are allowed to run many laps, up to 20 for some, during practice week but in the case of TT Zero Challenge, a maximum of 3 laps were possible, these being scheduled for May 31st (Fri), June 1st (Sat), and June 3rd (Mon). Therefore, all the teams needed to concentrate on each run to collect precious data.

John McGuinness came straight from his practice run on his superbike, and without any rest, swapped his racing suit and helmet and jumped on “Shinden Ni” and back out onto the TT course. While on the course run the lap time information was not being fed back from the various timing points around the course, and the team waiting at the paddock were concerned about machine trouble. But in the end, McGuinness came back to the pit having recorded a time of 21 mins 25 secs without any issues.

The average speed for McGuinness at this practice run 105.650mph (=170.027km/h), which is faster than the race-winning time of the previous year. #1 Michael Rutter (England) recorded average time: 104.631mph (=168.387km/h) and #2 Mark Miller (USA) recorded 102.328mph (=164.680km/h), which for both riders was faster than their own previous best laps. With his main rivals also looking fast, even though McGuinness had set a new fastest lap it was clear both he and Team Mugen would not be able to relax just yet.

June 1st (Sat)

2nd Practice - 2nd place
Lap time : 21 mins 07.20 secs
Average speed : 107.20mph (=173.521km/h)

With some of the route remaining wet due to partly rainy weather, the 2nd practice got underway. June 1st is the first official day of the TT race week, and so the Isle of Man was entirely filled with many spectators and an air of feverish expectation. The practice run of TT Zero Challenge was the final run of the day at 4:25pm, however, the crowds still circled the course and the practice run started also with great excitement.

Without any chance to change his suit after his Supersport practice McGuinness rode Shinden Ni hard to set a lap at 107.20mph, bettering his speed of the previous day. However, main rival #1 Rutter also found some speed and his lap of 107.816mph was good enough to put him in first place after one qualifying session.

Rather than a standing start from a massed grid the Isle of Man TT adopts a time trial format in which each bike starts one by one every 10 seconds, so in the case of the TT Zero Challenge the qualifying time does not necessarily influence so much the race directly, merely bragging rights. It is the output control of the motor or setting of the suspension, tires, brakes, and the related parts that will have huge impact on the race. This day the engineers at TEAM MUGEN experimented a little and changed the specs of the Shinden Ni to achieve an even higher top speed. Having gained valuable data from this run the team worked late into the night developing a race plan.

June 3rd (Mon)

3rd Practice - 1st place
Lap time : 20 mins 45.699 secs
Average speed : 109.04mph (=175.483km/h)

Unusually for the Isle of Man the weather settled and started to consistently reach temperatures of more than 20°C, and with its optimised final tune Shinden Ni was ready to face the final practice run. However first McGuinness had to race for almost 400km in Supersport and Superstock races of 4 laps each, followed by 1lap of the TT Zero Challenge. He is an amazingly tough rider!!

TT Zero Challenge got started at 3:48pm local time with McGuinness first out on course. With the new settings he was able to use all the battery power as planned and as a result returned in less than 21 minutes with the first ever lap over 109mph by a TT Zero machine, setting another unofficial lap record along the way. However the time difference back to #1 Rutter in 2nd place was a mere 16 seconds so TEAM MUGEN had to keep restrained until the end of the race.

June 5th, (Wed)

Race - 2nd place
Lap time : 20 mins 40.133 secs
Avarage speed : 109.527mph (=176.267km/h)

It was a beautiful sunny day without a cloud in the sky from the morning and the 2013 TT Zero challenge was due to get started at 10:45am. With all seats long since sold out the grandstands were packed and around the course the spectators were waiting expectantly to hear the unique sound of the electric motorcycles.

#3 Shinden Ni / McGuinness, with unchanged specification from qualifying practice #2 but with the benefit of new tyres, started out in the 3rd place therefore 20 seconds later than #1 Rutter.

Although the team can monitor some aspects of the race through radio broadcasting and lap-time monitor display, with no live feed TV broadcasting available TEAM MUGEN had no choice but to wait in prayer for about 20 minutes for the return of McGuninness. The race itself was quite breathtaking one for teams and fans alike. Having at one point held a lead of over 9 seconds Shinden Ni crossed the finish line 20 seconds after #1 Rutter. Immediately after McGuinness had crossed the line the radio announced that Shinden Ni had won the race. However the joy of the team was quickly dispelled when the announcer corrected himself. The result was 2nd place for the second year in a row but the difference between the 1st place motorcycle and Shinden Ni after 60km of grueling road racing was just 1.6 seconds.

Comments from John McGuinness

I noticed coming down off the mountain that the distance between myself and Rutter had increased and I was concerned about especially the difference in straightline speed. I doubt anything was wrong with the machine itself, however, we needed more power. I did my best and rode so hard my heart was jumping out of my chest, I could do no more and I really do not want to accept this result!

Comments from the project leaser, Akihiro Miyata

We set ourselves the challenge to race to win this, however, regrettably we could not make it, and the result was 2nd place. We were able to improve the performance of Shinden Ni through weight-saving of the machine, enlargement of the battery’s capacity, and increase of motor output.

At the Isle of Man all the team members, along with our rider, John McGuinness came together to do our best to figure out the very best setting for the race. As a result we were almost able to achieve one of our goals of a 110mph/average lap, and we could reduce the time gap between ourselves and the 1st place motorcycle. Had we been able to achieve our goal then for sure we could have won this race.

We were able to develop a better machine due to help of all the related people supporting us and we feel the responsibility for not being able to win the race. Please let us make a promise to win the race next year.

Comments from representative of the entrant, Satoshi Katsumata

With the same purpose as last year which is to master EV technologies, the development of the clear emission technology under the MUGEN brand, to create a machine from scratch by ourselves and to release our uniqueness of technological concept to the world, and the development of young human resources, TEAM MUGEN developed Shinden Ni and took on the TT Zero Challenge.

First of all, this project was designed at the outset to follow the process below for three years. In the first year, we were to join the race and became one of the teams taking part in this race as a competitor, and to complete the race in order to amass data for next year. In the second year, we were to return strong enough to compete against the top teams and to stand on a podium. In year 3 we were to win the race. But in the very first year, we won 2nd place, and our average speed was recorded over 100 miles per hour unexpectedly. Therefore, we had no choice but to revise our goals and set out to win the race this year. And so we set new goals this year, which were to become the champion and develop the new EV motorcycle, Shinden Ni.
Most of the parts comprising this EV motorcycle were newly developed, and we put priority on ①Power output was augmented, ②Cowl designed considering aerodynamic effect, ③Weight-saving. As a result of these developments, we believed we could evolve its ability dramatically compared with one the last year.

“Shinden Ni” could deliver its high performance as expected from the first practice to the race to always compete with the rival team by a narrow margin. We are confident of this competition. Toward the race TEAM MUGEN devoted every effort to lessen the time as much as possible, however, ended up with 2nd place merely 1.6 seconds behind the champion. But we believe the data we could acquire through this race is quite informative than one last year and with it we would like to become a champion in next year.

We also provided the children, in whose future EV vehicles and motorcycles will feature highly as race machines and basic transport, with an opportunity to be more familiar with TEAM MUGEN, to know more about our activities and become our fans at our paddock, which was a large reason for us to compete in this race. Incidentally the character design of “Shinden” painted on the body was determined as it is to capture the attentions and appeal to the children.

Lastly we could get the 2nd prize and we finished the race safe, due to the devotion of John McGuinness, and the support from all related people including our sponsors. We highly appreciate the encouragement and support from all of you.

Pos.	No.	Rider Machine/Entrant	Time	Speed
1	1	Michael Rutter 2013 MotoCzysz E1PC/	20:38.461	109.675
2	3	John McGuinness 2013 Shinden Ni/Mugen	20:40.133	109.527
3	10	Robert Barber RW-2/Ohio State University	25:02.467	90.403
4	4	George Spence Kingston 2012/Kingston University	25:41.822	88.096
5	7	Chris Mcgahan 2013 Yamaha R6E/Vercarmoto	26:59.755	83.857
6	5	Ian Lougher 2013 KOMATTI MIRAI KMI/	27:46.300	81.515
7	6	David Madsen-Mygdal Imperial/	31:26.933	71.983
8	9	Paul Owen 2013 Brunel BX/Brunel University	31:33.387	71.738