Daniele “Titus” Sabatini, owner, project leader and designer of Nembo Motociclette, presents his new engine, the “Super 32 rovescio” made to equip the naked motorcycles he will build in small series on request for road/track use. The engine “Super 32 rovescio” contains in the name its main features: three-cylinder 2000 cc (122.05 cubic inches) inverted or if we like, “upside down “.
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„I’ve chosen this particular engine architecture for both functional and aesthetic reasons” – says Sabatini. „Loving motorcycles as the highest dynamic expression of the fusion between driver and machine, I have a concept of the bike that sees the engine at the first place. I like air-cooled motors or also water cooled just if with finned cylinders and heads. However, in the current naked sport bikes, often the engine is too much hidden and totally water-cooled, practically soulless. It pains me to see it humiliated and smothered under frames and plastic components. So, I’ve thought that a good way to get a well exposed and updated air-cooled engine in a contemporary naked sport bike was just to invert it!
As you know, the inverted in line engines are not new: they have equipped many famous combat aircraft especially of World War II, the new thing lies in equipping with them a motorcycle to combine form and function in an interesting way. I wanted to build a high performance big-bore motorcycle, looking new but also with a classic and timeless beauty built with very few and high quality metal and carbon-fibre components and very light. I was not interested to make a bike with an extreme look, I liked to make a bike that looked like a true motorcycle and not like a manga robot. Inverting the engine allowed me to achieve these results. I’ve designed and built a motorcycle, the “SUPER 32″, where the engine, by mean of the super compact crankcase, totally placed over the cylinders and the heads, works as a real chassis while the cylinders do not participate in any way in the structural functions.
I decided to add a small trellis in the front and an essential saddle frame, not connected to each other (made in steel, because given the dimensions involved, carbon, aluminum or titanium are practically useless), above all for aesthetic and traditional reasons than for real structural needs, because the connection to the steering column and to the saddle can be obtained directly in the crankcase shape and the carbon-fibre swingarm directly pivots in the crankcase. So I had to build a naturally aspirated inverted motor first, an Euro 3, with precise technical and aesthetic specifications and I’ve found an ideal interlocutor in the excellent, and appreciated Chief Engineer Giovanni Mariani. Giovanni, with his young and skilled design team, composed of the very good engine Chief Designer Fabio Falcone, the talented Design Engineer Alessandro Sobacchi and the capable Engine Designer Marco Fasani, has developed for Nembo Motociclette a very powerful and extremely compact engine, making possible the engine layout I liked to get. Sandro Carò, gentleman mechanic (where the border between mechanic and engineer is so ephemeral), has personally taken care of the engine assembly and his suggestions have been so precious.
The upside-down engine
The “Super 32 Rovescio” Euro 3 engine can have displacements ranging from 1850 cc to 2100 cc, a power ranging from 160 bhp to 250 bhp, and torque values between 16.5 and 24.5 kgm, without the use of compressors. The peculiar lay-out of the “Super 32 Rovescio” allows an easy access to any part of the engine makes the heads and the cylinders totally exposed to the air and well visible, with the intake manifolds naturally upward in front of the cylinders and the exhaust manifolds downward behind them.”
The result is that the “SUPER 32″ bike has an exciting shape, is very light, with a dry weight ranging between 140 kg and 155 Kg depending on the requested outfit, has a profitable weight distribution and can be “short” or “long”: in the present configuration has a carbon-fibre swingarm of 670 mm and a 1450 mm wheelbase.
Technical data of the prototype engines:
Engine : 1814cc inverted – 4 stroke – 3 cylinders – Euro 3
Bore : 100 [mm]
Stroke : 77 [mm]
Displacement : 1814 [cc] – 110.7 cubic inches
Compression ratio : 10.5 : 1
Valvetrain : SOHC (single over head camshaft)
Number of valves : 2 valves per cylinder
Cooling system : air/oil cooled
Lubricating oil system: dry sump
Transmission : 6 speed
Maximum power : 160 [bhp] @ 7000 [rpm]
Maximum torque : 16.5 [kgm] @ 5250 [rpm]
Maximum engine speed : 7500 [rpm]
Weight : 90 [kg]
Engine : 1925cc inverted – 4 stroke – 3 cylinders – Euro 3
Bore : 103 [mm]
Stroke : 77 [mm]
Displacement : 1925 [cc] -117.47 cubic inches
Compression ratio : 11.5 : 1
Valvetrain : SOHC (single over head camshaft)
Number of valves : 2 valves per cylinder
Cooling system : air/oil cooled
Lubricating oil system: dry sump
Transmission : 6 speed
Maximum power : 200 [bhp] @ 7500 [rpm]
Maximum torque : 19 [kgm] @ 5500 [rpm]
Maximum engine speed : 8000 [rpm]
Weight : 85 [kg]
Engine : 2097cc inverted – 4 stroke – 3 cylinders – Euro 3
Bore : 107.5 [mm]
Stroke : 77 [mm]
Displacement : 2097 [cc] – 127.97 cubic inches
Compression ratio : 12.5 : 1
Valvetrain : SOHC (single over head camshaft)
Number of valves : 2 valves per cylinder
Cooling system : air/water cooled
Lubricating oil system: dry sump
Transmission : 6 speed
Maximum power : 250 [bhp] @ 8000 [rpm]
Maximum torque : 24.5 [kgm] @ 6500 [rpm]
Maximum engine speed : 9000 [rpm]
Weight : 85 [kg]
2011 Nembo Motociclette Super 32 Specifications and Photos
via Nembo Motociclette
