Kawasaki Z1-R Turbo

From its introduction in 1973, and for five years after, the Kawasaki Z-1 reigned supreme as king of the stoplight bandits. Some people bought Zs for looks, a few bought them for reliability, and maybe a few misguided souls bought them for their handling, but everyone who bought one expected, and got, the hardest accelerating motorcycle in production..oh, it may have softened a bit over the years, lost some of the crisp response of the original 903cc machine, but no one had matched its straight-line performance.  All that changed in 1978. Honda, Yamaha and Suzuki introduced one litre-class superbikes and each of them was faster than the Kawasaki.

Not only was the king no longer the king, the big Z wasn't even crown prince.  Enter Alan Masek. At one time a vice president of Kawasaki of America, Masek offered to buy 1000 1978 Z1-Rs from the Kawasaki factory, with the intention of regaining the crown through the magic of turbocharging. At the time the Café styling of the Z1-R was as popular as muddy boots, so Kawasaki gave the nod. Masek contacted John Gleason of ATP, who promptly put together the package. Not officially involved, the people at Kawasaki covered their faces and peeked through their fingers.  ATP dumped the Mikuni carburettors and the four-into-two exhaust system and bolted on a Ray-jay turbocharger, collector exhaust and Bendix accelerator-pump carburetor.

The installation was well thought out and exceptionally neat. The result was a coldblooded, ill-tempered brute described by one road tester as the type of machine best chained to the floor and fed chunks of raw meat—specifically children and small dogs. With the standard Kawasaki chassis, a horsepower increase from 'too much' to 'way too much' made the bike a handful in anything but a straight line. But in a straight line, the Z1 -R TC achieved its purpose. Quarter-mile time dipped well below 11 seconds  and the crown returned, albeit through the back door, to the house of Kawasaki. It takes an experienced hand to use the performance of the Turbo,

and an even more experienced one to stay out of trouble with it. Without boost, the engine is nothing more than a stock Z with a single carburetor. The oversize turbo makes low speed throttle response poor despite the stock compression and the 'pumper' carburetor. When cold, the engine burbles, spits and belches for the first five minutes of running.  All that changes when the boost comes on. Horsepower goes from perhaps 10% less than stock to approximately 40% more than stock. Cliches like 'explosive power', 'rocket-like acceleration', 'white-knuckle ride' and 'getting in over your head' take on a whole new meaning. This machine was made for one purpose, and when the boost comes on there's no mistaking that purpose.    Boost is limited to 6psi, and pressures over 8psi are not recommended for long periods without extensive engine mods, i.e., welding the crankshaft. Surprisingly, the engine holds up quite well when these restrictions are followed, which is nice to know there's was no engine warranty.  The rest of the machine is standard Z1-R.

The same powerful, cross-drilled disc brakes, two front, one rear; same angular styling with the short bikini fairing; the same decent chassis and the same marginal shocks. Although not the Turbo's forte, handling could be described as adequate, if the bike's not pushed. That's something akin to describing its weather-proofing as 'good, if kept garaged'.  In total, 1600 of these machines were produced in 1978 and 79, and that's all there is; there ain't no more. Most of those around are probably low mileage machines it's hard to cover a lot of distance 1/4 mile at a time.

Source of review : Super Bikes by Mike Winfield