I'm perfectly ok with this. That thing is wicked cool. https://www.cycledrag.com/nhra-appr...-team-confident-after-successful-test-session
Nope, switching over to the more modern Suzuki motors. The GS were getting too hard to find (what little of the motor they actually use).
None of those Suzuki's sounded any different than what we were running back in 2003. Out team had sponsored Ryan Schnitz and Rob Muzzy, when they were trying to make a more modern ZX work, and the water pumper motors sound much different than a GS based PSB. I'm not aware of anybody doing a modern architecture motor for PSB, but I've been out of the loop for a bit.
I read at some point that V&H were trying to do modern Suzuki motors because of the GS motor core getting hard to find. Don’t hold me to this but I remember them trying to do 4 valve heads. the Harleys used no Harley parts (that matter) while Suzuki at least tries.
We ran FBG motors from '99 to 2002, and then switched to V&H. Yes, there were some development motors with 4 valve heads, but they were still GS below the head. They just couldn't get the same power curve that the 2 valve offered. Similar and in some cases greater HP, but they wouldn't 60 foot for some reason. There were a lot of crazy things going on back then, like the spread bore motor we developed with Paul Gast. More HP, but again not much gain in ET. I don't think we worked hard enough on the clutch combo to work with it, as the power curve was totally different. I know I have a picture of it somewhere...
RD, you’re much more up to date and hands on than me. I tried doing drag bikes way back when you could buy a new GS1150ES but I way too small and got tired of rag dolling. I’ll try and find the articles I read.
For some reason, I couldn't post the picture and text together.... So, 4 valve, and I believe this was at 1780cc. There was a stroke limit in PSB, which set the displacement at 1540 due to the bore spacing on the GS motor. Well they never said we couldn't rearrange the bores. Nearly everything in the motor had to be custom made....cams, crank, of course nobody made those pistons... First time we started that thing, half the pits got whiplash from spinning their heads around. Sounded nothing like the standard GS.
Just talked to our old team owner, who is still somewhat in the loop, and he said they went all billet on the Suzuki motors at least 5 years ago. I knew they had done billet blocks in the mid 2000's, but apparently they can't get the GS cases anymore, so it's all billet all the time.
the molds for the carbon bodywork would be nice to look at... i would assume thats a pre-preg layup. probably $1500 in materials for part cost alone on just farbic and nomex honeycomb (again assuming).
