990cc WCM MotoGP Engine
WCM chose a four cylinder across the frame layout. The same choice made by Yamaha and Kawasaki.
To accelerate the development process it was also decided to employ the R1 Yamaha road bike engine silhouette. Doing this meant that the rolling chassis development could be started immediately.
Works was also begun immediately on internal power generating components and a dry clutch system. These could be tested in standard R1 cases. At the same time WCM began the design and development of our own crankcases with integral cylinders and a new 4 valve cylinder head.
It was decided that four valves per cylinder offered more development potential than the five valve arrangement used by Yamaha in the R1 engine.
One of the key elements in the crankcase redesign was the inclusion of a cassette gearbox arrangement that would allow gear clusters to be changed without complete engine diss-assembly.
