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7. Proton KR5

You could never accuse Kenny Roberts of being anything less than canny, and when MotoGP shifted to become a four-stroke series his thinking was as bright as ever. While others rushed to make expensive new four-strokes for 2002, he stuck with his team’s old KR3 three-cylinder two-strokes – which scored some impressive top 10 finishes even against the far more powerful new machines during the year and let Roberts see which of his rivals’ new technologies turned out to be the most impressive. It didn’t take long to see that Honda’s V5-powered RC211V was leagues ahead of its rivals, so Roberts decided to build an ambitious four-stroke V5 for his own team’s 2003 machine. Unfortunately, it turned out that a race-winning four-stroke V5 engine isn’t the sort of thing that’s easily copied, and the KR5 – valiant effort that it was – never even managed to get results as good as its two-stroke predecessor. The engine was ditched and replaced with a V4 KTM motor, with no improvement in results. It wasn’t until 2006, when the team got a supply of real Honda V5 engines, that Roberts’ bikes were able to shine again – scoring two podiums during the last year of the 990cc regulations with the re-designated KR211V.