Rob,
Absolutely. Triumph/BSA really made a first class effort for 1970 with the triple.
From:
http://www.motorcyclistonline.com/blogs/dick-manns-1970-daytona-200-victory-mann-machine"Triumph and BSA had joined forces in the mid-’60s, and by '70 the joint venture was desperate to boost sales of its premier triples, which were outsold 4-to-1 by Honda’s CB750 in the American market. The British firm thought a Daytona win would provide the perfect marketing boost, and spared no expense assembling a race effort for the 200. Seven racebikes were prepared, powered by 81-horsepower engines mounted in Rob North-built “highboy” frames wrapped in wind-cheating bodywork developed in a Royal Air Force wind tunnel. The company increased its odds with an all-star rider roster featuring nine-time World Champion Mike Hailwood joined by David Aldana on red-and-white BSAs, plus Don Castro, Gary Nixon and Gene Romero riding blue-and-white Triumphs. A full factory crew, including an aerodynamics specialist and support engineers from Dunlop Tires and Lucas Electrics, completed the effort."
and later on in the article:
"Meanwhile, the BSA/Triumph mechanics had their own worries: Those new, full-coverage fairings didn’t flow enough air to keep the triples cool in the Florida heat, especially on the infield road course."
So although the Triumph/BSA triple fairings were carefully designed and developed for minimum drag in the Royal Air Force wind tunnel, they were not prepared for the combination of high Florida heat with the very high consistent workload the engines would need to endure for 200 miles.
Again, from the article:
"For his part, Mann remains characteristically nonchalant. “That was a normal situation for Daytona,” he says. “It wasn’t a very complicated racetrack. They didn’t have the chicane in the backstretch, so the bikes were basically at maximum RPM for a very long time. Riding skill was important, but it was usually a battle of attrition. Hansen prepared the machine and I rode it as best I could, just like I was contracted to do. That was it.”
In this picture, you can see the ductwork front the oil cooler mounted in the front of the upper fairing to the exhaust exits on the sides of the lower cowling. This allowed a very good airflow through the cooler. It appeared to be a more effective solution than the other competitors, including the Honda machines. The Hondas used the ductwork and the exit in the lower fairing similar to the Triumph/BSA bikes, but the cooler was mounted well aft of the leading area of the upper fairing and wouldn't have allowed as good of a transition of airflow through the ductwork. Also the Triumph/BSA version benefited from direct, undisturbed high pressure air from the leading edge of the upper fairing, rather than the disturbed air coming in from the underside of the upper fairing. Honda's oil cooler did work, to be sure, but The BSA/Triumph setup was a more sophisticated and likely more efficient approach.
And yes it is interesting to see the different seat/tail shapes on the bikes for the Daytona like races. Some were certainly better than others. Yoshimura's two cb750 based racers had similar tails.
George
