Weekly Roundup: ThunderAce Edition
A few people have asked for a sort of weekly roundup on what Bark and I are writing out there in the big scary world beyond Riverside Green.
And I wanted to talk about the Yamaha YZF1000 "ThunderAce", so this is a good time to do both.
From Bark this week, we have a QOTD on motorsports, a little heart-warmer on kids who love fast cars, and a discussion about enablers and the mighty Mustang GT350.
From me, we have a user-contributed spreadsheet showing you how to save up for a vacation by using a car-share service, a heartbroken screed about an automatic-only Accord Touring Coupe, and the usual diatribe concerning not running into parked trailers. Over at Road&Track I've interviewed well-known race instructor Peter Krause about instructor (and student) safety.
Yes, it's been a busy week for the two of us.
Now, on to the YZF1000. When I was in my twenties I desperately wanted a ThunderAce. It only came to the United States for one year, and that year was 1997. I was, like, otherwise occupied with non-motorcycling matters for pretty much all of 1997. Don't think I rode even a bicycle that year. By the time I was in the market for a new bike, the YZF1000 had given way to the mighty R1. The problem was that the R1 was, and remains, a cramped and nasty little bike that just happens to go like hell. I look like a circus bear sitting on it and my oft-broken wrists can't take the weight. I mean, if I'm going to hold myself up on my wrists for an hour a day, I'll spend that time doing something else.
Like pushups.
You people.
The YZF1000 was basically the YZF600 with a bigger engine. It couldn't quite keep up with a first-gen Viper GTS in a very interesting C/D piece back in 1997, but it did crush out a ten-second quarter-mile. Early in the year 2000 I paid cash for a new black YZF600R. I ended up selling it one year and 10,500 miles later so I could buy my Lotus Seven clone. Wish I hadn't'a did that.
Every so often a YZF1000R comes up for sale. This last one, which is pictured at the topic of the article, had 147,000 miles on it. And it still made 123 at the rear wheel. Yamaha five-valve engines: not the droids with which you want to fuck, dude.
Let's see how the faster of my current bikes stack up to the YZF twins, plus my old Ninja 600R and CB550, with some old-fashioned magazine racing:
YZF1000R: 10.6@131.7 mph YZF600R: 11.3@119.7 mph VFR800: 11.2@119.8 mph CB1100: 11.79@110.9 mph 1987 Ninja 600R: 12.0@109mph 1975 CB550: 14.3@94mph
It is annoying as hell that the VFR800 posts the same numbers as the YZF600R, but that doesn't really tell the story. The YZF felt half as fast in real-world use because you had to run it to 10,000 rpm to make serious progress. The VFR has VTEC and it's much quicker when you're moving through traffic. The 1100, of course, is far more so. The VFR feels a little sluggish after the Big Honda Four.
Experienced magazine racers will look at that list and notice something wrong right away. f not, I put it in italics for you. The CB1100 has a 112mph limiter from stock, which it hits a few times in the quarter mile. You can't even run it to redline in third because it will bop the limiter. Personally, I've yet to have mine above 110. It's an unfaired bike. At 110mph it's like the wind wants to rip you bodily off the thing. But there's a Power Commander available for it that takes off the limiter, changes the fuel-economy tuning, and allows it to run an eleven flat at 120mph. So maybe I should do that. But not until the warranty runs out.
What I really want, just once before I give up motorcycling for good, is to own something like a ZX-14 or a MV Brutale or a GSXR-1000. Something absolutely unjustifiable. But for now the 1100 will do. This morning I found myself behind a 1991 or 1992 911 Turbo, one of my favorite cars ever. The traffic cleared in front of us and he'd already chosen his gear and off he went. The Turbo of that year did 12.9@108 for C/D. I dropped to third and then snarled in my helmet because he was holding me up, at full throttle.
I'll take it.