Supercharged track-only machine with 300 horsepower! Yes, 300 horsepower.
September 30, 2014 By Kevin Cameron
http://www.cycleworld.com/2014/09/30/2015-kawasaki-ninja-h2r-supercharged-sportbike-unveiled-at-intermot-2014-motorcycle-show/
Brace for impact! Kawasaki has crashed the party again, this time with a 300-horsepower supercharged motorcycle for closed-course operation only. No muffling, no emissions, no DOT.
Again? In 1972, in the middle of a sleeping market much like today’s, Kawasaki released its super powerful H2 two-stroke triple, which was absolutely the most bang for the buck available. Nothing could stand against it. The racing H2R version of that triple now gives its name to the 300-horse Kawasaki unveiled today at INTERMOT 2014, the motorcycle show in Cologne, Germany.
The motorcycle market has been steadily moving upscale for years, with manufacturers aiming products at those with disposable income. The farther this process goes, the more radical and exotic must be the offering to give those buyers a reason to act. The old mass market and commodity motorcycles are losing traction. Kawasaki knows that strong identity is central to success in future. Here it is.
NOT JUST A STRAIGHT-LINE MACHINE
Kawasaki’s press release makes it clear that the new Ninja H2R is not another slow steering, power-laden straight-liner. Moreover, its engine is a “a compact design similar to power units found in the supersport category.” And the only way to pack big power into a small package is to supercharge—to stuff into a modest-size engine all of the fuel-air mixture of a much larger engine. The chassis has trellis construction, and the bodywork, which must be right for high-speed stability, comes from the wind tunnel.
FEEL THE HEAT
A Kawasaki ZX-10R superbike engine of 998cc displacement takes in roughly 7,000 liters of air per minute. But if a compressor forces twice that volume of air into it, its horsepower will double. A limit is set to this process by heat. As the combustion flame spreads from the spark plug, expansion of hot combustion gas compresses the unburned charge remaining. As unburned charge is heated by this compression, pre-flame chemical reactions within it accelerate. If these reactions go far enough, bits of unburned charge go off before the flame front reaches them, generating shock waves of sonic-speed combustion that make the noise we call “combustion knock,” or detonation. The destructive effects of detonation set limits to our power hunger. Typically, compression ratios of supercharged engines are lower than those of unsupercharged engines to subject the fresh charge to less heating, thereby staving off detonation. Supercharged aircraft engines of WW II typically had compression ratios around 7:1, while engines of F1’s first turbo era ran at about 9.5:1. Splitting the difference, we get about 8.25:1.
Won’t this lowered compression reduce engine torque? You bet, but maybe around-town performance is unimportant for a track-only bike. Or this may further support the idea that Kawasaki has torque-flattening technologies we have yet to see.
Many of us have seen the Kawasaki patent drawings and text available on the Internet. They show the supercharger drive packaged into the space behind the cylinder block of a transverse in-line engine. Gear teeth cut into one of the engine’s flywheels turn a jackshaft behind the cylinder block. That shaft in turn drives a shaft above it, ending in a compact planetary step-up drive just before the centrifugal impeller itself. The impeller is small, as the very similar-in-concept impeller from one of my R-4360 aircraft engines has a diameter of only 14 inches (4360 cubic inches, by the way, is 71 times the displacement of a ZX-10R). Compressed air output from the blower’s scroll housing flows upward, pressurizing the intake airbox above it (which is presumably something more robust than the usual Samsonite-looking ABS structure). In Cosworth fashion, we can expect normal-looking throttle bodies and bellmouth intakes, projecting up into the box from the engine’s cylinder head. Cosworth engineer Keith Duckworth once said that a supercharged engine is just a normal engine operating at the bottom of a really deep mine (where air pressure is higher).
SLOWING DOWN THE BLOWER
Although patents are written as broadly as possible, what we can see on the web shows a dog-shifted two-speed drive to the supercharger shaft. Why? This might be because the output of a centrifugal blower increases as the square of rpm. Thus, if the blower was delivering a modest 5 psi of boost (that’s 5 psi above atmospheric) at 6,000 rpm, it would be trying to deliver 20 psi boost at 12,000.
Why not just go with that? One problem: The resulting torque curve would rise so steeply that it would make the bike unrideable. One way to change that is to run the supercharger on a high ratio at lower engine rpm, and then at some point shift to a lower ratio to limit top-end torque to something usable. Best of all would be a continuously variable supercharger drive that could keep boost constant for improved rideability.
Also seen in one of Kawasaki’s teaser videos is an audio track of the Ninja H2R accelerating with soprano whine through the gears, emitting little squeaks at each shift. This is the sound of the airbox pressure relief valve, venting excess pressure. The rpm sounds high, so I’m sure those of you with hand-held oscilloscopes have displayed a pressure trace to reveal the rpm (In 2007, at the first test of the then-new 800cc MotoGP bikes at Valencia, a knot of Yamaha techs had an oscilloscope down at the far end of the pit straight, harvesting the free sonic information).
Why not just turbocharge a ZX-10R? Same objection: Turbo power is very hard to make rideable, which makes it even more certain that Kawasaki has one or more torque-flattening technologies in the H2R. And another thing: We know some of the measures Kawasaki has had to take to make ZX10-R-based Superbikes reliable at 220 horsepower. But with 36 percent more power, and as a product offered to the public, the H2R must have received major beefings-up in all departments.
KEEPING IT CONTROLLED
Aside from providing “the kind of acceleration no rider has experienced before,” Kawasaki also wanted a chassis and aerodynamics that would deliver “unflappable stability,” “cornering performance,” and what the company calls “an accommodating character.” The H2R is to be an all-around motorbike, and for that reason it can be expected to carry civilizing electronics, including KTRC traction control, KEBC engine braking control, and KLCM launch control. That stated, racing slicks on the 17-in. wheels remind us that this a track bike.
Extensive aero work was done at Kawasaki’s Gifu wind-tunnel facility (back when we were racing the original H2Rs, our technician, Kazuhito Yoshida, told us “At Gifu, many smart guys.”). The result? “Wind tunnel-sculpted bodywork” that’s very different from the design-college exercises currently thought of as “streamlined.” I’m glad, because I am heartily tired of the conformism of sharp edges, points, and scoops so studiously cribbed from corroding 1950s jet fighters.
The future of the motorcycle? It will be whatever the market chooses.
2015 Kawasaki Ninja H2R
ENGINE：Supercharged inline-four, liquid-cooled
DISPLACEMENT：998cc
SUPERCHARGER：Centrifugal, scroll-type
MAXIMUM POWER：approximately 300 hp
FRAME：Trellis, high-tensile steel
FRONT TIRE：120/600R-17 (racing slick)
REAR TIRE：190/650R-17 (racing slick)
6,000回転時 5psi(pounds per square inch) = 0.35 bar
12,000回転時 20psi = 1.38 bar
上の記事は長いので、少々カットしてます。
タービンを複数テストし発熱の少ない形状＆サイズを採用することで、インタークーラーなしでも効果的にパワーアップを実現。
圧縮比は、8.25対1なのかな。
過給圧は、0.35～1.38bar。（6000～12000回転）
フレームは鋼管トラスのほうが、超高速走行時での信頼性が高いので採用した雰囲気。
アルミフレームよりエンジンがむき出しで、冷却性にも貢献しているように見える。
車両がスリムになっているようにも見える。
くしくもパニガーレを、トラスでリメイクしたような見た目になった。
（ドゥカのモノコックが、カワサキZX-12Rの真似と考えるとお互い様か）
カワサキのZX-10Rスーパーバイクレーサーが220馬力なので、36％ハイパワー。
カワサキ岐阜の風洞施設でボディワークをテストしたもよう。
保安部品が無くスリックなので、レーサーとして売るのかどうなのか。
「Supercharged track-only machine」になっているので、この車両はレーサーですね。
H2Rなので、そう言うことでしょう。（市販ならH2）
先行はレーサーで、カウルがABSになった市販車が今後出そうな雰囲気ですが・・・（笑）
とりあえずレーサーが観測気球で、市販に向けて、政治的なネゴ中なのかどうなのか。
スーパーチャージャ－やターボなら、正圧のかかる位置に必ずしもダクトは必要ないだろうし、取っ払ってライト装着＆ダクトは別の場所か無くすか。（車両の横から吸う方式でも良いような。冷たい空気が吸えることが条件）
ミラーは、アッパーカウルの羽と交換ですね。（LEDウインカー内蔵）
そう見るとスグ市販車にできそうですし、ベースの技術は、必ず他に応用されるので期待できそうです。
オフ車のように輸入車で買って、ナンバー取得しても良いような気もしますが・・・
Kawasaki Ninja H2R - Intermot 2014
The 2015 Kawasaki Ninja H2R - Official Video Introduction
Kawasaki Ninja H2R - Intermot 2014
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_gKc7o5Gvc
Kawasaki Ninja H2 R Walk-Around at Intermot
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmSPbLdh5P0
NEW 2015 | SALON INTERMOT | KAWASAKI H2 R 2015
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1HlTaAjgdk
The 2015 Kawasaki Ninja H2R - Official Video Introduction
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cv2q3yh4wxc
フロントフォークは、スプリングとエアーの併用なのかどうなのか。
ステダンは、電子制御式（速度で変化）ぽいね。
2015 Kawasaki Ninja H2R First Look
http://www.motorcycle-usa.com/630/19264/Motorcycle-Article/2015-Kawasaki-Ninja-H2R-First-Look.aspx