[Z OH 6]

Originally Posted by NG329

Let me give you an example of a "Superior Platform" vs an Inferior one. A little bit of Moto Racing history.

In the early 2000s, Honda campaigned a V-Twin 1000cc bike against inline 4 cylinder 750cc bikes. Honda started to dominate and it became next to impossible for Kawasaki and Suzuki to beat the V-Twin 1000cc. Having 4 cylinders allowed for higher RPM and more linear power delivery. However the torque off of the corners allowed the V-Twin RC51 to capitalize and win tons of races (2002 Nicky Hayden wins AMA Superbike championship against the best racer in AMA SBK history - Mat Mladin).

Licking their wounds, Suzuki and Kawasaki moved on to run 1,000cc inline 4 cylinder motorcycles and in 2003 Mat Mladin won I think 11 races out of 16. Complete and total domination. In fact, AMA (world superbike as well) enforced restrictor plates on the inline 4 cylinders to slow them down so there could be closer racing. THIS is an example of a Superior Platform (inline 4), vs an inferior one (V-Twin). Eventually V-Twins were phased out. In World Superbikes, Ducati ran as much as 1,299cc V-twins just to try and be competitive with the inline fours of the Japanese manufacturers. Years later, Ducati now campaigns V4 motorcycles against I4 bikes from Japan.

The same is true in Moto GP. Back in 2003 500cc 2 strokes gave way to 1000cc 4 strokes. This is an inferior platform giving way to a superior one. Valentino Rossi won the majority of races in 2003 with Honda's V5 4-stroke Moto GP effort. He completely and utterly destroyed anyone running a 500cc 2 stroke. So much so that racers pleaded for the manufacturers to catch up.

So my point? You can't just go saying a platform is superior to another just because you like where the engine is placed.. The data shows that FE cars are STILL COMPETITIVE with ME cars even to this day. ME cars are simply not dominating on a consistent basis where we could deduce that they are superior. That is not the case, and there is no data to support it. Superior means that it is rendering obsolete another platform and that simply has not happened.

We're not talking motorcycle here.