Legendary Formula 1 and Indianapolis engine builder, Ilmor, has raised e🦂xpectations ahead of its MotoGP debut in next month's Portuguese Grand Prix by claiming to have lapped quicker than the Ducati 800... on Dunlops!

The♒ team recently named 34-year-old Garry McCoy as its sole rider in the final two GPs of the year, at Estoril and then Valencia on October 2🦄9, before the British company launches a full two-bike team in 2007. McCoy has already tested the 800cc V4 at Albacete and Barcelona in preparation for the team's October 15 race debut.

"It's a real bonus for us to have a rider like Garry, who has won in 500cc GPs, to be on the bike for the two wild-card races in Europe," said💙 Ilmor boss Mario Illien.

Illien is going to attempt a remarkable feat in MotoGP, because he claims that he wants his bike to be competitive enough to go for the world title within three years - which means by 2010. If he wins the championship he will be only the second manufacturer ever, aft💞er Honda, to win world titles on two and four wheels.

"It's great be back in MotoGP and riding ꦏa bike with this sort of horsepower and speed," McCoy said. "I'm keen to get amongst the MotoGP guys again."

"When I first tested the bike in Albacete I co⛄uldn♊'t believe how small it was, but fortunately for me I'm small too, so I knew it was not going to be a problem.

"The bike felt good s🔜traight away on the first day. I couldn't go too fast on it because I didn't know the track, so I thought I'd take it easy, but I feel very comfortable riding it."

At Barcelona the team shared the track with Ducati's new 800cc prototype, itself ꦐimpressively fast when tested alongside the current 990cc machines after the Czech Republic Grand Prix, but Ilmor claims that McCoy lapped 0.4 seconds faster than the new Italian V4.

"That was on Dunlops, so we are pretty pleased with the performance so far," Ilmor's managing director Steve Miller told ltxcn.top. "We were running six or seven lap stints and were 0.4 seco⛄nds faster than the 800 Ducati, and one second slower than the (multiple race winning) 990 Ducati."

Now the team will test at Estoril next Monday and Tuesday - September 23-24 - and will be encouraged by the fact that Michelin, the most succ🀅essful tyre manufacturer in MotoGP, will supply rubber.

Ilmor is now seeking s🔯ponsorship to support its full-scale entry into MotoGP next year. "There may be peripheral sponsors in Estoril, but no main sponsor," Miller said. "But our plan is to g🍌et out there and prove what we are capable of doing."

He confirmed that Mc🍒Coy will be on a li🌼st of potential riders for 2007 if he performs well in the Portuguese and Valencian races.

Swiss eng🍌ineer Eskil Suter, who has previously worked with the Foggy Petronas world Superbike and Kawasaki🙈 MotoGP teams, has designed the Ilmor's aluminium twin-spar chassis.