H2R: The Fastest Motorcycle in the World
Kawasaki, the motorcycle people behind the epic-ally ridiculous Ninja 1400 just went and upped the ante by an order of magnitude. UPDATE: Watch a recent track video and a walk around video shot at Intermot below.
For the past few months, Kawasaki has been teasing the world with a few spy shots, but since we usually just cover cars, we haven’t been bringing them to you. We should have. Recently, Kawasaki debuted the company’s newest motorcycle, and it’s a beast.
Dubbed the Ninja H2R, the superbike is Kawasaki’s first factory supercharged motorcycle, and the 998cc I4 will produce a staggering 300HP. To put that in perspective, the featherweight Alfa Romeo 4C weights around 2300 lbs. in American spec, and it’s only packing 237 ponies.
There’s carbon fiber, racing slicks, wings, an exhaust that is sure to annoy everyone known to man, and a completely redesigned frame that makes this bike just plain ridiculous.
Now, there are actually two versions of this bike, the first is the H2R, which is a pure track day toy. That’s the full Monty bike I laid out above. And then there’s a street-legal version. Kawasaki is mum on what the street version is going to look like—or any of the performance figures—though it’s safe to assume it won’t be packing as much power as its weapons-grade sibling. But don’t worry, we’re expecting it to crest the 200HP mark—still stratospheric in the motorcycle world—by a comfortable margin.
What’s next—Podracers? All we know is that Kawasaki has gone completely psychotic with this bike. We’ll know exactly how far when the full stats are released at EICMA in Milan early next month.