Kawasaki has recently released a video titled Supercharge Your Journey, which suggests its venerable 1400GTR could be a victim of Euro4 emission laws.
Until now, Kawasaki’s direction with supercharged engines has been all-but entirely performance based.
It’s all quite secretive until November 7, when Kawasaki will unveil a new supercharged sports-tourer at EICMA.
The teaser reads, “While none of the exhilarating forced induction performance feeling is missing, this unique power feeling is now joined by superior fuel economy and an overall riding feeling directed towards the sport touring market.”
We think that means a Ninja H2 tourer will rise from the ashes of the 1400GTR – a large-capacity engine capable of high revs, unfortunately that means it’s not capable of high fuel efficiency too.
A supercharged engine in this space makes a lot of sense – rather than using it to increase horsepower like the balls-to-the-wall H2, keeping output relatively sedate should create the fuel efficiency Kawasaki claims, and it’s much better than a turbocharger in a motorcycle sense because there’s no lag.
No one wants to tour on a 200 horsepower engine with the power band of a two-stroke…
Kawasaki built the supercharged H2 engine from the ground up a few years ago, and a sports-tourer variant now seems like it was part of the plan all-along.
The H2 Ninja engine has proved itself, as longevity issues surround supercharged engines, usually because the internals can’t cope with the higher pressures and temperatures.
With an engine built to cope with these tolerances, supercharging an engine isn’t a problem.
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