Bol D'boxer
Bol d'Boxer
BMW’s R1200S racer
BLAKE CONNER
THE WORDS “FACTORY BMW racebike” haven’t been spoken in a long time, especially in reference to roadracing. The Bavarian company has recently been involved in its own Euro-based BoxerCup and PowerCup spec-racing series and also in the MOTO-ST championship here in the States, but it had been 50 years since the company was seriously involved in roadracing at the factory level.
That all changed last year when BMW used the Endurance FIM World Championship to get its feet wet again. This also happened to be a great teaser for the release of its 2008 HP2 Sport.
BMW subsequently announced planned involvement in the ’09 World Superbike Championship with an all-new, lOOOcc, four-cylinder K-series motorcycle. And how’s this for late-breaking news? BMW will contest the Daytona 200 with a four-bike HP2 Sport team. Roadracing is back in BMW’s blood.
Last year’s Bol d’Or at Magny Cours concluded BMW’s first season in the Endurance championship. The company competed in the Open class, which didn’t pay points toward the title, but the team had some excellent results including fifthand ninth-place-overall finishes at Oschersleben in Germany. Beyond results, BMW definitely earned the distinction of having the most interesting bikes in the field throughout the year.
Key to quick pit stops are custom fork lowers designed to quickly roll the magnesium front wheel in/out without caliper removal, while aluminum PVM rear wheel has single-nut Sauber F1 racecar hub. Hidden under the dry-break-equipped fuel-tank cowl is oversize hand-welded aluminum 6.35-gallon cell for long stints between stops.
I was scheduled to ride the team’s R1200S racer the day after the Bol d’Or 24-Hour but it almost didn’t happen, as the team’s pair of bikes had been crashed so many times during the dark of night that all the spare bodywork was used up.
I assured them that CW didn’t mind a few scratches and dings on a real racebike that had just competed in-and survived-one of the hardest motorcycle races on the planet.
Turns out the hardship for the bike wasn’t over. Despite the fact that the #17 racer was destined for BMW’s museum in Munich, that didn’t stop a German journalist from chucking it down the road right before my session. Mechanics could do nothing but sigh as the bike was unloaded from the crash truck. The last thing they wanted to do after 24 hours of sleep deprivation was rebuild the Boxer, again. But they did it anyway. The downtime did, however, allow the wet racetrack to dry a bit more before I headed out.
What an impressive motorcycle. The 1200S racer looks large and bulky, and throwing a leg over it is made difficult by the tall rear-ride-height setup. But any notion of this converted streetbike being oversize is lost when you flick it into a tight comer. It feels very light and far more agile than you ever would expect. During the Bol d’Or, R1200S-mounted American Brian Parriott was, in fact, repeatedly able to carve a tighter cornering line than any of the lOOOcc Fours. He described handling as more akin to a CBR600RR than anything else. And no, I never saw the trick carbon-fiber cylinder-head covers kiss the tarmac during the race.
Stability was excellent when on-throttle over Magny Cours’ tricky elevation changes and also under braking heading into the Adelaide and Chateau d’Eau hairpins. Through fast sweepers, it was unflappable. Compliance from the Telelever was first-rate, offering very good communication with enough braking-dive tuned in to make the front suspension feel almost like a conventional fork. Telelever has served the company well since its introduction on the RI 100RS in 1993; now only a handful of bikes in its streetbike lineup don’t have an alternative front end. The two factory racers are equipped with Öhlins shocks at the front and on the shaft-drive Paralever swingarm setup.
The rider is offered a smooth and stable platform that would be comfortable for hours on end under racing conditions (easy for me to say after only five laps!). Controls, seating position and footpegs were all adjusted to endure the hour-plus stints between pit stops for fuel, tires and rider swaps.
A few tentative laps on the drying track with the wet-weather Pirelli racing tires-in place of slicks-proved that grip was decent. But by the end of my five-lap session, the torquey 130-horsepower, 1170cc flat-Twin had the rear tire squirming all over the place as the surface dried out and the tires started to overheat. Torque is what this bike is all about, delivering a huge dollop exiting comers, thanks at least in part to the racer’s free-flowing Akrapovic exhaust.
Shifting could be smoother, though. Action between gears felt really stiff despite the use of a quick shifter, which cuts fuel delivery (instead of the more typical ignition). Overall, though, the 1200 was an impressive, fun and unique bike to ride.
Although many may view a big-bore Boxer as an odd choice for racing, the engine proved dead-reliable and generates tons of torque, and the chassis is the epitome of stability, which sounds like a perfect endurance racebike to me. To finish first, you must first finish, and that is something this R1200S did consistently all year long. Rumor has it that the Open class will pay points in 2008, so stay tuned, Beemer fans: There could be a roadracing championship in the bike’s future. □
