Thanks Marshall. Your comments make perfect sense. I guess I was thinking
about it from an F500 point of view, where the chassis cost and non-engine
related operating costs are much lower than FC.
Cory
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
<<< 3. I thought it was interesting that the article said the
expected operating
costs in F1000 would be approx. equal to FC. I thought the common
wisdom is
that the MC engine would lower operating costs.>>>
Cory -
The reason for this is pretty simple: Engine costs aren't a very large
percentage of total operating costs, nor of total capital outlay.
If the total cost of a car is $50K, of which $12K is the engine,
dropping the engine cost to $8K only gets the total car cost down to
$46K. From the standpoint of engine cost taken by itself, it looks
pretty significant. However, when put into the mix, it's really not
that much - less than 10%.
The same is true of operating costs. What percentage of the average
operating budget actually goes to engine rebuilds and parts? What
about tires? Entry fees? Travel? Crash damage? Shock rebuilds &
dyno time (ask the FF/FC guys about this one)? Even if you can cut the
engine maintenance cost by 20%, it hasn't made much of a dent in total
outlay.
It probably is cheaper to run a literbike engine/gearbox than a
Pinto/Hewland. It's just not enough of a cost cut to really change the
overall cost by enough to matter.
MM
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