The RS Cube (often wrongly and redundantly referred as RS3 or RS3 Cube, due to the original lettering RS³) is a prototype race motorcycle that was developed by

Aprilia Aprilia is an Italian motorcycle manufacturer founded immediately after World War II in Noale, Italy, by Alberto Beggio. The company started as a manufacturer of bicycles and moved on to manufacture scooters and small-capacity motorcycles. ...

to compete in the 2002 until 2004

MotoGP Grand Prix motorcycle racing is the premier class of motorcycle road racing events held on road circuits sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM). Independent motorcycle racing events have been held since the start ...

seasons. It was unveiled at the

Bologna Motor Show The Bologna Motor Show (known as the "''Salone internazionale dell'auto e della moto di Bologna''" in Italian) was an auto show which was scheduled to be held annually in December, in Bologna, Italy. The editions of 2009 and 2012 were the shor ...

in December 2001 by Aprilia's president, Ivano Beggio, and their race boss, Jan Witteveen. The Cube is powered by a 990 cc inline-3

four-stroke A four-stroke (also four-cycle) engine is an internal combustion (IC) engine in which the piston completes four separate strokes while turning the crankshaft. A stroke refers to the full travel of the piston along the cylinder, in either directio ...

engine (to conform to MotoGP rules of that time). The engine was developed with large F1-derived input from Cosworth, bringing many features not previously seen in motorcycle development - this includes pneumatic valves, traction control and ride-by-wire. On the bike's first outing in 2002 it showed promise and claimed the top speed in the early races. The highly innovative engine and control system was poorly matched with the chassis which was too stiff and unforgiving. Through the 2002 season a handful of updates were made and in 2003 a 3-2-1 exhaust system was added to effectively de-tune the engine. This was coupled with a change to a 6 injector fuel system and a host of calibration changes which transformed the feel of the bike. At this point Aprilia took over the engine development programme themselves and did not take any further development updates from Cosworth. Despite early promise the bike was not a success; the innovation shown in the 2002 season with traction control and

drive by wire Drive by wire, DbW, by-wire, steer-by-wire, fly-by-wire or x-by-wire technology in the automotive or aviation industry is the use of electrical or electro-mechanical systems for performing vehicle functions traditionally achieved by mechanical link ...

is only now being perfected. The engine design and development was carried out by a small team at Cosworth Racing in Northampton and went from CAD to track in 8 months. The engine was considered the most powerful at that time, producing about . A testbed that never was raced produced at one point, before Aprilia bowed out of MotoGP in 2004.

References

External links

Aprilia RS Cube MotoGP bike
reviewed by Motorcyclist Online Grand Prix motorcycles RS3 Cube Motorcycles introduced in 2002 {{motorcycle-racing-stub