Getting ready for Bonneville in August, I took the ZX-14R out last weekend. I tried to describe the experience for my moto and non-moto friends, and it's pasted below unedited for this forum.
Here are the pics – I was blown away by all the amazing machines, both car and bike!
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/105285247073726432504/albums/6023126007317342385I bought a new Kawasaki ZX-14R a few months ago with the goal of going 200 mph on the salt at Bonneville this year. To get ready for that I went to Wilmington Ohio for an ECTA event where they clock you at one mile from a standing start. It turns out that there's a production record of 197.8 mph there that I had a good shot at beating. So that became a goal on top of just getting practice and seeing what the bike would do in essentially stock trim.
I learned that the production class (ECTA at least) allows race fuel as long as it's purchased from their vendor at the track. So I bought a can of VP MR-12 (oxygenated fuel) from Rick at RnR Cycles and a Bazzaz unit to get the air/fuel mix right. Rick hooked me up on the dyno tuning because he's a friend of Land Speed Racing (LSR). It put out about 204 HP with the MR-12 and 198 HP on pump gas (still need to get the charts from Rick).
You need to get three licensing passes in at 125, 150, & 175 mph before really letting the beast eat. There was a chance that I'd only get four passes in all weekend, depending on attendance, clustage, and weather. So that might be only one shot at going for the record, and highly unlikely I'd do a near perfect pass on the first try. So I wouldn't call it pressure, but the task had my full attention. It turned out that I got eight passes in the first day!
The licensing runs suck because you have to focus on the speedometer. You're allowed plus or minus 5 mph, except if you're under then you're not really good to go (I didn't understand that part either). It was unknown exactly how optimistic the speedo is, so I guessed on the high side. The 125 run ended up 133.7, oops but they signed off on it. Then I did 152.9 (good). Then 174.8 very good, but under! They signed off on that too.
My first three full runs were 195.397, 195.482, and 195.567. Pretty consistent even though I was making mistakes. The different little mistakes must have averaged themselves out, maybe along with some wind variance. It sounds so easy. You just run it through the gears and stay tucked in. Just need to focus on a few things, shifting at the right RPM, making sure the throttle is absolutely pinned, and the tuck. The all important tuck.
But it's not that easy. The speed is not scary because you're too focused trying to do everything perfectly. But you're in such a violent physical situation that it's hard to focus on more than one or two things, at first anyway. It's not that you're hanging on for dear life, the seat holds you in fine. But getting your head ALL the way down means rolling our eyes up to look through your forehead. There's just a very narrow vertical field of view between the dash the top of the helmet port. Combine that with natural tunnel vision from the high speed, and a lot of vibration, and you're not exactly taking in the scenery! Oh did you want to read the fine lines on the tach too?
Ali (my coach) said you should be squeezing everything into the bike so hard that it HURTS. That's what I focused on for the fourth full run and BAM 197.282 mph! I had short shifted a bit from fifth to sixth, so was thinking I could get the record with a good run. There was time for one more, and I nailed it! At least it was by far my best run yet. I rolled up to the timing trailer thinking come on record! ('Record' gets printed right on the timing slip) Instead it was 196.249. Ali said he felt a gust of wind at the starting line that probably hit me somewhere around fifth gear, and knew I was screwed.
Sunday's forecast called for likely thunderstorms, but there was still hope. The track opened at 6:00 AM and we were there to be front of the line and take advantage of the cooler morning air. Unfortunately there was a hefty 10 mph headwind. The good news was that most people had left and I was able to get six runs in by noon when they called the event for rain. So good practice was had and we got loaded up just as the rain started.
Going for a record has never been my intent. This was a window of opportunity that is now closed because I'll be modifying the bike for Bonneville, which will put it out of the Production class. Not going for a record means not Land Speed Racing in my book, more like land speed track days. So I'm glad to have had this experience of actually going racing. Getting SO close, it can drive you crazy (what if I had run zero weight oil and a Li battery etc.).
Plus I got to have a straight up battle of sorts with one other guy there going for the same P/P 1650/4 record. Fred had a first gen ZX-14 with motor work. Nice guy, I even sold him two gallons of MR-12 out of my five gallon can. I don't think he broke out of the 196.xxx so we might have had him covered. He wants that record though and likely will be back after it in July. That is not the path I'm on. July will be for testing the bike in Bonneville trim. Pipe, lowered, and probably some nitrous for good measure.
Wait, didn't I say somewhere that I'm not a fan of nitrous? Well, the big lesson of the weekend was the experience of coming so close, yet the equipment on hand was not quite enough in the conditions. The bike was theoretically capable of 201.x mph with stock gearing at the extended 12K rev limiter. And it seemed like it would pull it given more than a standing mile, and/or cooler, stiller air. We not only fell short of that but the dang 197.8 mark too.
Bonneville is higher elevation, will be in August, and salt instead of pavement. Possibly even marginal to run on moist salt. Lowering the bike and putting a pipe on, I'm told, should be good for about 5 mph. Is that enough margin to ensure 200 mph? Nah, I've seen what a little wind can do. I still like the idea of doing it with motor, and will try, but will have a war power button to make sure. It is a very long drive after all...
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