Under Pressure
UNDER PRESSURE
When you want to make huge power, boost is best
Contrary to popular belief, there is a replacement for displacement. It's called a turbo, and for sustained mind-(and connecting-rod-) bending horsepower, nothing beats it. John Noonan has for years been boosting 'Busas, with records at Bonneville and other Big Flats (four different 200-mph clubs) to show for it, which made him a perfect guy to invite to Lemoore's 3-mile runway.
His bike is a 2000 Hayabusa with a heavily modified 1299cc engine. The cylinder head is CNC ported by Bob Carpenter, the Velocity Racing turbo is huge and the Autronics stand-alone fuelinjection system augments standard injectors to hose fuel down the enlarged intakes. "I cut no corners on this build," Noonan says. Depending on the boost setting, the engine delivers 400 to 590 horsepower at the wheel!
"With 280-mph gearing, I should be able to hit 260-270 in a mile and change," he said at Lemoore.
We tried to make sense of those numbers... After a few easy photo runs, we set up for a first go at real speed. He disappeared like a UFO once he got off the line and the bike continued to wheelie in flit/i gear at an estimated 250plus mph! Unfortunately, light detonation in one cylinder made that run the last.
"That was one of the fastest runs I've ever had," said Noonan. But for proof that everything that can go wrong will go wrong, the V-BOX GPS-based timing equipment got its brains scrambled by the bike's ignition and the run wasn't recorded! Data will have to wait until next time, but we've never seen any land vehicle short of a Top-Fueler accelerate so hard.
Hennessey Performance Engineering (www.hennessey performance.com) is best known for its 1200-plus-hp twinturbo Vipers, but due to the timing of our test, they brought out a recently completed Ford GT1 000 owned by a SoCal customer.
Hennessey's GT1 000 replaces the factory supercharger with a pair of Garrett ball-bearing turbochargers (same size as the one on Noonan's bike). Intakes, fueling and ECU are upgraded, with the net result of 1000 hp at the flywheel, or 915 on the Hennessey Dyno jet chassis dyno. Unfortunately on our day, a boost-controller was on the fritz so the engine was at about 750 hp.
Launch was traction-limited (higher tire pressures for top speed safety) but it still impressed with a 4.32-second 0-60 mph run. Once the $230,000 thoroughbred got its legs, it hit 180 in an amaz ing 20.68 seconds, faster than three of the bikes! It was also really strong from 100-180, going third-quickest. Peak speed was a phe nomenal 220.88 mph on our test day. They got a do-over a week later with the turbo back up to full pressure and went 235 mph. See, boost is best!
Mark Hoyer
