Irving Vincent 1600 V8 test

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Irving Vincent 1600 V8 test
Piper

Test Irving Vincent 1600 V8

Homemade from Australia

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V-Twin, air-cooled, 1600 cubic meters, eight valves – the self-made from Australia is a real bomb. This is also underlined by the performance data of this unique item.

It is a mixture of a brutal racer and an almost antique engine concept. The Irving was invented VIncent 1600 V8 from the Australian Horner brothers Ken and Barry to scare the twin superbikes at the ProTwin races in Daytona 2013. The name of the bike is a deep tribute to Phil Irving, the Australian engineer of the British Vincent motorcycle manufacturer, who went bankrupt in 1955, was successful in Formula 1 from the 1960s and later taught the Horner boys near Melbourne a lot. “Phil was great and we wanted to build a competitive racer without using ultra-modern technology,” Ken explains the concept. “Actually, we would need an airbox and water cooling, but that would completely destroy the dignity of this 50-degree twin.”

In Daytona in 2008, they already demonstrated that the Aussies know their craft. With the 1300 – Irving Vincent Ahnin – driver Craig McMartin beat the factory Ducatis. Back then it was around 1098, in 2013 they will face Panigale. The 142 hp would not have been enough for that. So they increased the twin with a bore of almost 100 millimeters to a miserably long 100 millimeter stroke and thus to 1571 cc. But the 165 hp achieved with it still seemed too scarce to them. So the brothers went to work on the cylinder head, now giving the former two-valve engine four per cylinder. “Around the top we just reached the end of the flagpole. We implemented some of Phil’s ideas and now have eight valves without overhead camshafts, ”explains Barry, without giving away the details. With a compression of 13: 1, the Irving Vincent now has a whopping 186 hp at 6800 rpm – and weighs only 180 kilos without fuel. But the torque is even more breathtaking: at 5800 rpm the black bomber pushes with 193 Nm. A major design problem, however, was the heat – no wonder with an air cooler with this performance. “The longer it ran on the test bench, the more you could watch the performance decrease,” said Ken. “We had to redesign the entire oil circuit so that more oil could circulate and we could get a better grip on the temperature.” Nonetheless, the engine heat initially caused valve problems. Special outlet valves made from a heat-resistant Inconel alloy provided a remedy.


Piper

Irving Vincent 1600 V8.

The racer with a central tubular frame made of chrome-molybdenum steel, tubular swing arm, a state-of-the-art 43 mm JR900 fork from Ohlins and the TTX36 shock absorber distributes its weight 52 to 48% (front / rear).

While driving, the revving pleasure of the huge twin is astonishing, delivering astonishingly little torque in relation to its cubic capacity. You have to keep it well above 3500 rpm, but then shoot out of the corners like a cannonball.

The braking stability is downright clear. Without an anti-hopping clutch, the braking torque is of course enormous due to the twin size alone. But when the clutch is carefully engaged, there is no risk of punching the rear wheel, which hardly lifts off the piste even when anchored hard. So it is important to set the braking points a little earlier, to take some time when downshifting and then to steer in with force. Driving the Irving Vincent 1600 V8 is very special, but an unforgettable experience in a positive sense. The little, half-disguised sister achieved a top speed of 266 km / h in Daytona. With full fairing, the 1600 series should go up another 18 km / h. Then in 2013 we will see if the retro-oriented racer can pack the high-tech Panigale in Daytona.

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