Looney
tune
Is there such a thing as too much horsepower? Apparently not. Well, that's if
you're silly enough to take any notice of anything Guido says...
It
seems only fair to blame Over Racing importer Don Stafford for this. He got
me into this mess by unwrapping a particularly cute titanium four-into-one system
for Hannibal the Hayabusa. "Feel this," quoth he, handing me a lump
of exhaust, which was paper thin, light as a feather, and had the most delicate
welds I'd ever seen.
It was the classic puppy dog sales close. Popular with sales people worldwide,
it works on the theory that if you hand someone a puppy, they'll pet it and
will be reluctant to give it back. That's what was happening with the exhaust
- I wanted to name it and take it home with me.
So that's how we started on the long and slippery slope of modifying the 'Busa.
The intention was to do something with it, but much, much, later when I could
actually afford it. Oh well, as Spannerman says, it's only money. (Great, now
I'm taking financial advice from a poor man!)
Naturally enough we needed to make the most of the pipe, so I got on the horn
to Phil Tainton (pictured), the gent behind the Suzuki superbike race team.
With six national championships on his tuning CV, there's a fair chance he's
going to get it right.
We ended up deciding on fitting a race pattern BMC air filter, which Mr T reckons
adds a couple of horses. It's fine for street work, but you'd resort to a stock
item if it looked like dirt roads were going to loom into the riding picture.
To get all that working, we threw in the ubiquitous Dynojet Power Commander.
These have become almost standard fitment for anyone who's keen to get the best
out of an injected motorcycle - particularly if it's carrying a few mods.
That lot is then put on the dyno (Mr T estimates two to four hours for the job)
and fine-tuned over a squillion runs. Just as an aside, standing in the tiny
enclosed space of a dyno room as the Hayabusa winds up to full feral mode is
a sobering experience. It starts off okay, but somewhere in the upper midrange
a deep-throated howl emanates from the bike and, at around 9000rpm, as it's
making a final push to full noise at 10,000, the ground starts shaking. You
start to get waking nightmares about what would happen if 200-plus kilos of
very angry Suzuki suddenly broke free of its restraints...
And the upshot? Hannibal was a healthy example in stock trim at 164.5 horses
at the back tyre, or something over the claimed 172 at the crank. Phil reckons
you can safely add 15 horses to the rear wheel figure to get the number at the
crankshaft. By the time he'd finished with it, we hit 177.6 at the rear, or
somewhere in the region of 190 at the crank.
Funnily enough it's a real sweetheart to ride. It's more boisterous than previously
in the lower ranges, has fatter power and torque curves across the entire rev
range and is doing things I don't yet fully understand at the top end. Very,
very, nice. Here's a final, remarkable trick: The pipe is several kilos lighter
than stock, and is quiet. A little fruitier than standard, but not enough to
attract attention.
The catch is finding somewhere to use all that grunt. In the meantime, Mr T
reckons he has a package that will bump it up to 210 horses...
(Postscript: Tainton subsequently got the bike to 208.9 hporses at the back
wheel, or somewhere in region of 220 at the crank.)
Guy "Guido" Allen
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