Genesis of the Jota: Part 2 - The Slater Jota

If that bike was used for proddy racing in Australia it would have failed scrutineering with a QA throttle. Were the rules stretched a little in the UK?
 
Piranha Brother 2 said:
If that bike was used for proddy racing in Australia it would have failed scrutineering with a QA throttle. Were the rules stretched a little in the UK?
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The rear-sets look different to normal as well.

bazzee
 
Production racing had very different rules in UK. It was not "as it came out of the crate" as in Australia. The TTM Jota from Brisbane had a black painted Magura QA throttle fitted into a standard ND housing and the scrutineers never noticed. It was the only modification on the bike.
 
There was a number of different rules depending on what series/club etc you were racing. All very confusing at times and of course led to lots of arguments about what was legitimate or not. It also, depended on who was interpreting/enforcing the rules.
I remember it being just the same when Superbike/Supersport replaced Formula racing classes as it was supposed to be lightly modified production bikes, but no two bikes seemed to be the same, and the factory aligned teams were definitely pushing the boundaries of the rules.
 
One of the mags did a feature on PK's gold Jota back in about 78 ish they said the only mods were lower gearing to let the motor rev no air filter 160 main jets and racing plugs, who knows what the Cropredy Motors guys set the motor to re valve timing etc  but the bike hit 136 down the straight at Snetterton and was still going.
I have an article about Roger Winterburns 1200T he raced and it was geared down also

A while later they took a green Slaters Mirage  and did the same test at Snetterton that bike could only manage 121 a whole 15mph away off PK's Jota the lap times also were nowhere near the Jota

Geoff
 
Tippie said:
Production racing had very different rules in UK. It was not "as it came out of the crate" as in Australia. The TTM Jota from Brisbane had a black painted Magura QA throttle fitted into a standard ND housing and the scrutineers never noticed. It was the only modification on the bike.
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So you are saying Jota modifications were allowed ....

Jim
 
Since Slaters sold the 3CE and Jota from the showroom floor, and anyone could buy one, it seems they were ok withing the rules there. Unless it was Davies himself in the heat of a race you can't compare the figures for speed on the straight. It was the most common cause for protest in Australia that someone would get blasted past along the straight by a top rider, but that top rider had a far higher speed out of the last corner and slingshot onto the straight on a bike with the same power as the protester. We ran 46 tooth rear at Lakeside in Brisbane, gearing changes were allowed, the easiest and cheapest tuning mod.
 
Sorry just to clarify it was the bike journalists who tested both bikes so a direct comparison was obtained, it just showed the difference between  PK's relatively lightly modded bike and a showroom demonstrator

Geoff
 
geoffr said:
Sorry just to clarify it was the bike journalists who tested both bikes so a direct comparison was obtained, it just showed the difference between  PK's relatively lightly modded bike and a showroom demonstrator

Geoff
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But a Mirage was relatively softly tuned compared to the Jota and due to the Marzocchis somewhat taller.
It'd have been more instructive if they'd compared a run in stock Jota with PK's.
I once, thinking he was someone else, tried to outbrake PK going into Gerrards, Mallory Park on an ILOC Track Day. Scared the crap out of myself but realised that my braking point was earlier than it needed to be.
He was on a stock 1980 Jota and significantly quicker than anyone else that I saw on track that day.
 
It wasn't a comparison test, they used to take the bikes to a track ( Snetterton) to see how they performed and as the new Green mirage was the new hot Laverda they track tested it, they thought it lacked top end speed, it was probably  out of tune,  (and had standard gearing ) and they commented on the speeds ( and lap times ) PK's Avon bike had hit to demonstrate the Mirage's'  lack of top end,

Some of the other mags got really good performance figures from the Green mirages, better than a standard Jota especially acceleration and some proddy racers adopted them with good results

Geoff
 
In my experience the green Mirage accelerated well, didn't have a particularly high top speed but was good fun, unfortunately they drank fuel like there was no tomorrow and had a fuel reserve of about 100 yards.
 
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