We have to admit, it was fun. Sure, this job is almost always a good time, but when you get to wield this much horsepower at Miller Motorsports Park, on some of the best mountain roads in the world and get a private test day on Naval Air Station Lemoore’s vast and loooong and smooth concrete 3-mile runway, it really doesn’t get any better.
We rolled with all the heavy hitters in the sportbike class, our aim to find which of these 1000cc-plus machines would sprint from 0-180 mph quickest, which could lap fast (and make the rider feel good about it!), and which was the most competent and well-rounded streetbike, to boot. For extra flavor on the mega-acceleration runs, we invited John Hennessey of Hennessey Performance Engineering to bring out one of his 1000-horsepower (at the crank) Ford GTs, plus land-speed-record-holder John Noonan and his 590-hp turbo Hayabusa. Dream time for speed junkies, folks!
The full story is in the current July issue, but for now tune up your monitor and check out some XtraPix in the ample photo gallery. You can also listen to me talk about the test on CW Radio.
