[image]http://www.garyjavo.com/images/pictures/TURBOBUSARACE/turbobusaturboviper.jpg[/image]
Let me start off by saying that I have tons of respect for bikes. I am currently looking for a Hayabusa to build myself. All of the information about this bike that I am reporting was told to me by the builder or owner (both of which were present at the track during the race). I am just repeating what has been told to me. I am looking to report the truth, how one machine stacks up against another. I have taken a lot of time to try to do this properly, and report as many of the details as I could think to come up with, so do me a favor and cut me some slack on the criticism. All of the racing in this video took place on a private track, out of state, with the proper safety personnel on standby. We found a track that has a 1 mile straight. It was perfect for our situation.
So I will start from the beginning. It started when a friend of mine went to the local 1/8th mile dragstrip. He saw this Turbo Hayabusa running pretty impressive times(5.9X@126mph). My friend went over to the guy with the Busa to ask a few questions. He was surprised to hear the builder(who has a bike shop and did all of the work to the bike) say that he had a race lined up with a twin turbo viper. My friend said the builder also mentioned me by name. That surprised me because I didn’t even know that there was a turbo Busa in town. I asked my friend where the builder’s shop was. I decided to pay his shop a little visit.
I stopped by and talked to the builder. I told him that I heard we had a race lined up(that was news to me). He said he would love to see how the two machines would stack up. He was a pretty nice guy. Then the guy in the back comes up front to tell me how much of an “ass whoopin” this bike was going to lay on me(there’s nothing quite like hearing from someone how a vehicle that they don’t even own is going to outrun you). I just told him “we will just have to wait and see”.
I stopped back by the shop when the owner of the bike was up there. He seemed to be a stand up guy. I told him that I didn’t think I could hang with him on his race gas settings(10psi), and I would like to try his 6psi setting. He said he wasn’t crazy about that(I can understand why he felt that way), so I told him I would be more than willing to race him on his race gas setting, if he was willing to race me on his pump gas setting. We agreed, the race was on. We spent the next few weeks finding a location and getting all of the details all ironed out.
The Details:
2004 Suzuki Hayabusa
-Mr Turbo turbo kit
-Power commander
- 8”extension
-Electric Shifter
-Race gas
-10PSI
-Drag Tire
-Stock Internals
-Stock weight
-Bike Length 88"s (Front of front tire to back of back tire)
66.75"s center of axles (wasn't sure how the bike guys measure it)
-Rider Weight about 180lbs
1996 Viper GTS
-Heffner Twin Turbo
-Stock Displacement
-Stock Heads
-15PSI
-Race Gas/Pump Gas Blend
-Stock (lowered) Suspension
-Pirelli Street Tires
-Full Weight
-Air conditioning
-150lb Passenger
After all of this planning, the day finally came. We were in the pit area at the track getting our stuff together. We got some pics of the bike, and took some measurements. We had a little bit of a situation before the race. The guy with the bike decided he was not going to let me have a shot at the 6psi setting. I felt that I would not have a chance at the 10psi power level, and I was a little pissed that we agreed upon the race conditions, and went through all of the trouble of lining up the race, just for the owner to back out of what we had clearly agreed upon. We bitched and moaned about it for about an hour and a half, and finally came to the agreement that I would run him with his 10 psi setting and race fuel, and if I lost we would turn the bike’s boost down to 6psi and give it another shot.
***CLICK HERE FOR LOW RESOLUTION VIDEO(10MEGS)***
***CLICK HERE FOR HIGH RESOLUTION VIDEO (41MEGS) ***
The temperature stayed in the high sixties. After the bike owner did a traction/track condition check we fired them up and took them out onto the track. The time had come. We slowly brought the machines up to 80mph. My passenger/video man started us with a drop of his hand. I was in third gear. As I pressed on the accelerator with the force to almost make my calf cramp, I could tell the 345-25-20s out back were doing everything they could to keep from spinning. As I made my shift to fourth, I glance over at the boost gage to see it pegged just past the 15psi mark. I then look out the passenger side window and to my surprise there is no Busa there. I make my fifth gear shift and then look out my rear view mirror to see the mighty Busa a few cars behind me. I couldn’t believe it. I was hoping to be able to just keep up with the bike. You can imagine my surprise to see him in my rearview!! It is difficult to believe that this no compromise street car just outran a 10psi/race gas turbo Hayabusa from 80-180mph!!
We get back to the pit area, and I am waiting to see if it was a clean race. He comes back and says it was. We reviewed the tapes in disbelief. The builder and the owner turned out to be two stand up guys. None of us could believe that the car did so well. I asked the owner if it surprised him. He said, “did you see the look on my face? I couldn’t believe the car was pulling away.” I told him that he had one hell of a bike, and that I appreciated him being honest about the situation. He said, “I was joking you about you needing to go get some bigger turbos, but it looks like I am the one that needs the bigger turbo.” I thought it was really cool that he could take the loss like a man. I have to say, the guy really does have one hell of a bike. I told him to take it up to the next level, and he can come out and outrun me. He told me to give him a month or two and he would be ready.
The guy on the video giving commentary is the builder, not the owner. He was really cool about the whole thing. I thought it was cool that the guy was willing to tell it like it was, even though, on this day, it didn’t go their way.
Now let me get a few of the stupid comments I know will come up out of the way.
-No I did not build this car just to outrun a $20,000 bike. I am into anything fast. I plan to build a big turbo Busa of my own. I built this car because I like fast cars. The bike builder CHALLENGED ME to the race. It isn’t like I went looking for trouble. I just accepted his challenge.
-No the race was not rigged. The owner and builder wanted to win badly. We spent an hour and a half arguing, or should I say talking, about the conditions of the race. You could really tell that they wanted the win.(and I don’t blame them) I have to give them credit, at the end they showed great character.
-Yes, I acknowledge that the bike would have cleaned my clock from a dig. I wanted to go from 80mph, because I wanted to (for the most part)take traction issues and driver error out of the situation.
-Yes I know there are more powerful turbo Busa’s out there, but I think this is by no means a small feat either. I think it should be pretty clear that this bike is faster than more than 99% of street bikes on the road.
I think the bottom line is, if you are into speed, hopefully you can appreciate what we set out to do. I plan to continue pushing the edge with my GTS. We are talking about taking the car to the next level to see just how much power a bike will have to have to keep up with or outrun the fastest of the fast street cars. This is something I am really looking forward to.
Thanks.
PS: Thanks Tony A for hosting the video for us!!
