Kawasaki Ninja H2R makes 300 horsepower

No more weird videos, no more conjecture, no more arguing on the internet (or with Lemmy) about what Kawasaki will or won't do. We have the official word and that word is: insane.

The Kawasaki Ninja H2R will be powered by a 998 cc supercharged inline-four that Kawasaki says will produce "roughly" 300 horsepower. I still can't believe I just typed that sentence.

Everything else you've read and seen is true. It has a centrifugal supercharger. It has a steel-tube trellis frame. That power will be connected to the road with tires and not wings. Though I feel sorry for the rear tire. Since it's not street-legal, the H2R rolls out of the factory on slicks.

At this point, there isn't much we can say that hasn't already been said or that isn't obvious. The purpose of the bike was to design a "halo product," that would catapult the Kawasaki name back to the top of the charts. They're well aware that this thing doesn't fit into a race class and that it can only be used on a track. Though "used" is a word loaded with meaning when this kind of horsepower is involved.

The bad news is that it looks like we have to wait until EICMA next month to see the H2, which we expect to be the road version, which is expected to be tuned to produce less power.