From a press release issued by Aprilia, which came with photos of Lucchi instead of Edwards, for unknown reasons; maybe they like Lucchi’s leathers better:
Aprilia Racing Press Information
Jerez de la Frontera (Spain)
Private Tests
2/3/4 December 2002
Wednesday 4 Dec.
Last day of tests for Aprilia at Jerez. Colin Edwards out on the track with the 2003 RS Cube ‘evolution’.
The second session of Aprilia winter tests has come to an end on the Jerez de la Frontera circuit after three days of intense work. Colin Edwards went out onto the track today with the 2003 version of the RS Cube evolution. The “lab” bike was fine-tuned by works test rider Marcellino Lucchi from the Racing Department of Noale, and today it was Colin who tried out the latest changes made to the new RS3, now being prepared for next year’s racing season. The American rider covered 800 km in the three days of tests and today clocked up 76 laps, with his best performance being a lap in 1:42.9. The 2003 Cube has a new frame with a different geometry from that of the 2002 version and the bike has slimmed down by three kilos.
Colin highly appreciated the characteristics of the Cube evolution he used in the tests this afternoon and yet another improvement on his lap time shows how the Texan has really spent very little time getting a great feeling for the new bike.
“You feel the lightness of the new Cube immediately” said Colin Edwards. “As soon as I got on the bike, I felt it was going twice as fast and, the first time I braked, I could feel it has a far more efficient braking system. The bike is actually much lighter and its power is thus considerably greater. I’m really impressed with the Cube evolution and today was truly special. This test session was really important, not just for the new features, but for all the work we did. I generally manage to get even more work done in a test session but with the Cube it’s different: each single detail needs to be worked out to perfection and we examine each of the choices for the settings in much greater detail. We’ve still got more work to do but we’re moving forward by leaps and bounds and that makes me really satisfied.”
Colin Edwards – Aprilia RS3 – 1:42.9