The Kawasaki H2R at EICMA 2014: a chat with Sergio Vicarelli.

When you think the 205 HP of the new 1299 Panigale are more than enough to cover long sections of tarmac as quickly as possible, you were wrong.  The new Kawasaki H2R will destroy all you know about power limits in a motorcycle engine.

At EICMA 2014 I was able to confirm that Superbike horsepower wars are far from over. Is it right to think that Motorcycle Companies are diminishing their interest in building lighter and more powerful bikes in favor of smaller products? Sure. But for someone, there is still room to add more numbers to the "HP" name. Fighting my way through the crowd, I was able to see the black beast and even have a friendly chat with the Commercial and Marketing Director of Kawasaki Italia, Sergio Vicarelli.

Sergio is a friendly, passion driven individual, who does not mind talking about Kawasaki's new track only monster with a completely random guy like me.

I met him while he was explaining to Group of younger riders the wonders of the new centrifugal supercharger used to squeeze every drop of power from the 1000cc 4 cylinder engine: "It's better than a conventional Roots one" he was saying, "as the new turbine compresses air without generating too much heat. The turbine is also designed also to run at 9000 rpm when the engine is revving at only 1000. This gives a consistent increase in power.". As a matter of fact, the engine cutaway shows a Turbo-style compressor, driven by a long carbon fiber intake running from the nose of the bike, right down to the engine compartment.

As he finishes with those guys, I immediately approach him and start firing questions at him like a maniac. The first question I pose is "Why the need for a supercharger on a superbike? Why 300 hp?", he smiles and answers my question without esitation:"the centrifugal supercharger allows to have extra power without needing an increase of displacement therefore letting us use the same engine size of a 1000cc but having a completely new dynamicity of the power delivery. The bike could not have obtained the same results with a conventional normally aspirated unit as the engine would have been impossible to manage. It also would have been necessary to change the frame size, compromising the feeling the rider gets from the motorcycle itself". It's definitely a different concept that the one Ducati has done by increasing the displacement of the 1199 Panigale to 1299. This sort of "tricks", supercharging, gives a more fluid and constant power delivery.  What is also interesting, is that all bike dynamics depend on the aerodynamics, designed with Kawasaki Aerospace department:"As you probably know" he said "Kawasaki is a Company present in many sectors of engineering. Motorcycles are just a part of what this Reality is all about, as we build everything from sports bikes to heavy machinery and Aerospace, so the Intellectual force behind our Company is really immense. When our engineers designed the bike, they needed the knowledge to make it stable and neutral at very high speeds. As you can see the nose is not pointing down as all sports bikes on the market right now: it's higher because it provides better results at high speeds and also because it contains the airbox that feeds the supercharger".

"Also, the new aerodynamics are visible through the two wings placed where usually we find the rearview mirrors and are complemented by two additional winglets placed on the lower carbon fiber bodywork. Again, another solution to have the bike neutral at speeds", "and this also justifies the shorter hulls?" i ask "yes, the fact that the bike features less bodywork is not just to improve the aero but also to help it dissipate the heat coming from the engine and keep it at the optimal operating temperature during the ride. As the bike was designed by the Aerospace guys it is not just "another" wind tunnel only design. Here we are talking about something groundbreaking and completely new in the design of a motorcycle.  This idea is also expressed by the chassis of the H2R".  Knowing all the work Kawasaki has done to improve the Handling of its bikes to stay competitive in the Superbike World Championship, I ask him more about the structure where all that technological goodness is housed "Is it a completely new design or it benefits from Kawasaki proven racing experience?","No, it does not share any resemblance to our ZX-10R Motorcycle. As the H2R will never compete in International events, we wanted to design something completely new, just for this bike. It is a frame made to accommodate the new powerplant and to help it merge with the bodywork and help the cooling". "We designed the bike as a new performance benchmark in the segment" goes on Sergio "but we had to make it easy enough to let the customer use it to its full potential even if he/she is not Valentino Rossi". Well done, Kawasaki!



Knowing EICMA quite well, and still having lots to see, I decide to quit my thirst of knowledge of the brilliant H2R and greet Sergio and finish off my tour of the event and of the beautiful array of vintage Kawasaki superbikes on display.

My first encounter with this engineering Tour de Force, the Green Deamon as I will call this bike from now on, as left me completely amazed and eager to learn more. 300 bhp on a track bike sounds like a no-brainer: no one will ever need a bike with such a power for a couple of track days per year. But what it emerges is something completely different, a bike that is made to accommodate a new concept of competitive riding. It does not seem to be the new all-horsepower machine with no real dynamics added to it. It may be the dawn of a new concept of superbike, the Hyperbike. Usually I see supercharging and state of the art aerodynamics on supercars rather than motorcycles, but during my brief chat with Sergio, it almost sounded like we were talking about some supercar.

A new idea which finds itself also in the new road-going variant of this amazing bike, the 200 hp H2, also on display at EICMA. This is just the beginning of what it seems to be a not so distant future.