A Five-Unit Jet Bike Is Outranking The Ninja H2R And Doesn’t Deserve To
With a top speed of 249 MPH, the Kawasaki Ninja H2R is by most measures the fastest production motorcycle in the world. At $62,100, it is also one of the most expensive motorcycles money can buy, but there is one minor problem. It is not a street-legal motorcycle. This leaves the record open for debate, and in many ways inconclusive, because this particular record is not supposed to be for track bikes.
How We Got Here
All the way through the 80s and 90s, speed was everything. At one point, we had a bike coming out virtually every year, breaking the previous top speed record. While corporate price certainly played a part, this quest to be the fastest had more to do with sales at the time. Having the fastest motorcycle in your stable had a very real correlation to sales figures back then.
By 1999, the Suzuki Hayabusa effectively brought an end to these “speed wars” when it posted a top speed of 194 MPH. It forced regulators into action, and by the following year all superbikes were limited to a top speed of 186 MPH. This Gentleman’s Agreement has never been enforced, but the Japanese manufacturers, in particular, still adhere to it to this day.
Even though they adhere to it, it clearly stung Kawasaki. The Ninja H2R is clear evidence of this, because it serves no purpose other than simply being the fastest motorcycle on the planet, and the fact that another bike is consistently touted as the fastest must be rather irksome!
The MTT 420 RR Is Straight Out Of A Cartoon
MSRP: $275,000
Anyone who grew up watching cartoons on a Saturday morning will be quite familiar with the antics of a certain Wile E. Coyote. While we can’t say for certain if the guys at MTT were inspired by those Road Runner cartoons, the bike they built comes straight out of that crazy coyote’s playbook. Strapping a jet engine onto a motorcycle is a pretty wild idea, and to make it work requires some serious engineering.
Unlike the Kawasaki, the 420 RR is not a full production motorcycle, and is generally only built to order. They did, however, announce that they would be building at least five for their 25th anniversary last year, and that constitutes a bumper year in the world of jet bikes, or, should we say, the only jet bike manufacturer in the world. These bikes are, to say the least, exclusive machines, and while the top speed can be debated, it is without doubt the most expensive new motorcycle money can buy.
The 420 RR Has A Jet Engine Out Of A Helicopter
Power: 420 Horsepower
As the title of this article suggests, this is a legitimate jet bike, but it technically doesn’t get an actual turbine engine from a jet. Its refurbished (not new) Rolls-Royce Allison M250-C20B turbine engine is actually out of a helicopter, capable of producing 420 horsepower (as the name suggests) and a truly face-melting 500 pound-feet of torque. While the numbers boggle the mind, what is even more mind-boggling is the fact that it is technically street legal.
At slow speeds, it is actually relatively docile, and you don’t need to go back to the airport to refuel with avgas, either. These turbine engines can run on pretty much anything combustible, but for the sake of convenience, the 420 RR is set up to run on diesel or kerosene. Unfortunately, it will drain its entire 8.5 gallon tank within 60 miles, which means it has less range than the average ebike!
A Toy For The Rich And Famous
The turbine alone costs a whopping $125,000. So, you can imagine how much a new one would cost! That refurbished turbine is still guaranteed for life, and it is fairly easy to understand why. It doesn’t need to work particularly hard to get a motorcycle chassis that only weighs 500 pounds (impressive in its own right) moving, and at the end of the day, it isn’t as though owners are going to be racking up thousands of miles on these things.
Anyone who buys one of these bikes is simply buying an experience. Very few people will ever get the opportunity to ride, let alone own, one of these incredible machines thanks to its rather exclusive price tag, and unlike similarly priced hyper-cars, it offers a completely different sensation of speed. It is not instantaneous acceleration. The turbine takes a bit of time to spool up, but once it does, you had better be pointing the thing in the right direction!
The 420 RR Is Technically Faster Than The Ninja, But Nobody Can Prove It
Claimed Top Speed: 273 MPH
The 420 RR is, rather obviously, not a particularly practical street bike, and could get you in a world of trouble by simply trying to start the thing in the wrong place. Its exhaust temperatures get hot enough to melt plastic, and melting somebody’s bumper is one thing, but accidentally spooling this thing up while somebody is walking past is another.
It is the kind of toy that really does require access to an abandoned airstrip if you were to get the most out of it. Even then, you would most likely run out of room long before you even hit 200 MPH. Unlike the Kawasaki, it requires an incredibly long distance to get up to speed. Its top speed is certainly achievable under the right conditions, but nobody has actually been able to replicate this claimed top speed out in the real world.
As the website says, the bike really is “faster than you will ever dare to go.” 273 MPH remains theoretical. The Ninja’s top speed, on the other hand, has been documented in the real world …
Source: MTT
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