Getting the Fury back together again

On Thursday when the ‘sending them out today first class’ parts from Powertec hadn’t arrived after 8 days I gave them a ring. They’d been waiting for a a part then reckoned my card had bounced. Tried it again while I was on the phone and it was fine. And the parts did indeed arrive the next morning – a new pushrod, 3 spacers and some bolts. For some reason these spacers were steel, they’ve previously been aluminium. Sadly they were the wrong parts, the spacers and the pushrod were too long. So I reverted to my previous plan which was to make some spacers up myself on the lathe. I worked out what lengths I wanted to suit my existing pushrod and found it easier than expected to get them accurately made to length using the calibration on the little wheel that moves the toolpost on the lathe towards the chuck.

The next part of the plan was fabricating a more robust bracket to support the 3rd mount of the cylinder which is normally bolted on where my oil pump sits. Although I made a start at this on Friday I didn’t get very far and had to abandon to take the Audi to the dealers to get the towbar electrics programmed. Yes, really. Last weekend I’d fitted a towbar to the A6 and the wiring module instead of splicing in to all the individual wires for lights etc. had 2 wires that connect into the car’s CAN bus. It then needed programming to recognise this and to alter things like brake distribution, park sensors etc. when the tow bar is plugged in. Clever stuff, and it even works!

So on Saturday I got going again on the clutch slave bracket. This actually took an inordinate amount of time as it’s all a bit tight around the oil pump and requires a bracket with multiple bends in it. Also my metalworking skills leave a lot to be desired I abandoned my Mk. 1 design and tried a different plan. I hope Brian Baldwin doesn’t see this or he might well need to go and have a lie down. I was eventually happy enough with it. It’s not the most aesthetically pleasing but it should certainly give the slave cylinder a lot more support than its predecessor. Once I’d got it painted and the bolt heads drilled for the lockwire I got it all bolted up. Here you can see one of the new spacers and the new much heavier duty bracket on the left – in addition to being made of 3mm steel it’s actually bolted to each end of the oil pump and as you can see has 2 bolts into the clutch slave.

Once that was done it was time to stick the engine back in the car. Within an hour I had all the mounting bolts done up and the prop reattached. I could feel the difference tightening the bolts, it seemed difficult to get them tight before whereas this time they hit that point where you know the bolts have clamped the two parts tightly together and you won’t get them tighter. This took me to close of play on Saturday. It’s likely that the interference between the flange nut and the prop yoke has been responsible for many of my problems, including bolts throughout the transmission keeping come loose and the vibration I’ve been aware of for ages. I cast my mind back to the Birkett last October and wonder whether this issue was responsible for the vibration I was aware of then.

I only had a couple of hours on Sunday as I was off to work at noon. I got all the oil and coolant hoses reconnected, reconnected all the electrics, the gearshift cable and the exhaust manifold then got the coolant and oil back in. There’s always something deeply satisfying when you’ve had the car in bits all over the garage floor and she springs back to life when you hit the starter button, and this time was no exception. I got her up to temperature and checked there were no leaks from the rigid pipes connecting the oil pump to the sump then it was time for work.

I gave Brian a quick ring in the evening to see how he was getting on with my next batch of BDN parts. The quite detailed delivery schedule had 16th August as the next landmark but I wasn’t sure whether having to redesign the bulkhead was going to delay things. It turns out not, the bulkhead is machined up and the other parts are ready so as soon as I finish work on Monday I’ll nip up to Hereford to collect them.

Inspecting the damage

After the excitement of Sunday’s racing at Pembrey it was time to inspect the damage. The bonnet was pretty much a known quantity and frankly although there’s a fair bit of work involved in making it presentable again it’s straightforward enough. The clutch however was likely to be more of a challenge. So I got the bonnet and airbox off to find the slave cylinder more or less flapping in the breeze. It was originally retained by 2 long bolts into the engine and by a small bracket bolted to the dry sump pump. One of the bolts sheared at Pembrey last time and was replaced with a steel bracket. That was all that was left, the other long bolt had now also sheared and the little steel bracket had broken.

Not seeing any realistic way of extracting the sheared bolts with the engine in situ I made a start at getting it out. I managed to drain the coolant and disconnect the hoses, disconnect the electrics, remove the exhaust manifold and got the undertray off ready to drain the oil and disconnect the sump hoses by the end of play on Tuesday evening.

On Wednesday I took the Spire prop to be repaired and took along the failed yoke. Andrew at BAR spotted a mark on the back of the yoke face and wondered if it’s been impinging on the nut holding the adaptor onto the gearbox output shaft. This would then flex the yoke as the bolts were tightened leading to its failure. In which case I need to carefully inspect the one I’ve currently got on. He was kind enough to let me take a couple of different yokes with me to see if they fit OK.

I also spoke to Powertec and ordered replacement bolts and spacers for the clutch slave. They reckon they just use spring washers and don’t seem to have problems with them coming undone. I plan to use plain thread lock (rather than the studlock) and will lock wire them. Assuming I can get the old ones out that is …

Thursday morning before work I continued on the mission to get the engine out. Once out I could see that the prop yoke had indeed been impinging on the large nut holding the flange adaptor onto the gearbox output shaft – as you can see in this pic at the top of the nut. You can also see from the surface rust where the yoke hasn’t been in firm contact with the flange. I need to consider my options now – one of the yokes Andrew gave me seems to fit fine, the other doesn’t, obviously swapping that over would mean taking the prop off and taking it over to have it done. Alternatives include having the existing yoke machined (but I’m worried about weakening it), filing the nut down so it does clear, or getting some form of thin spacer made up.

With the engine out I now had clear access to the sheared bolts and on Thursday evening I drilled them and although the first one came out pretty easily with an extractor the other one required the removal of the dry sump oil pump and the assistance of Mr. Blowlamp. By the time I’d reasssembled the oil pump and its rigid pipes it was close of play.

Friday morning was spent undoing the oil pump again as the gearshift mechanism was binding. By the time I’d sorted that out it was time to nip over to Neath for the prop. I took the adapter and the nut with me. Having discussed the options with Andrew we decided the best bet was to machine the nut down a bit. Andrew reckons this was the cause of the original prop failure ages ago and I’m sure he’s right. He bolted the adapter to a new yoke to check the nut was now not impinging. While I was out I called into Machine Mart for some lockwire pliers and got a new jockey wheel for the trailer as the tyre on the old one is goosed.

The spacers and bolts never arrived from Powertec and I didn’t have time to make any spacers up on the lathe although I did get some suitable bolts locally. Hopefully I can get the job completed the coming weekend. The next delivery date for the BDN is approaching although there’s been a slight hitch in that the ZX10 turns out to have a higher gearbox output shaft than the other engines so the rear bulkhead needs redesigning then Brian will need to machine one.

Getting ready for Cadwell

Having got the rear calipers sorted yesterday there were still a few little jobs I wanted to do before Cadwell.

The silencer is only supported by a single bracket at the rear end and this just suspends it. The silencer as a result has been able to swing in the breeze, so I wanted to add another bracket to firm it up a bit. As usual with these things it took me ages longer than I expected but after a load of hacksawing, welding and drilling I had an additional bracket there that triangulates nicely with the other to hold it nice and firmly.

The scrutineer at Brands had commented on two things. He wanted an additional spring on the throttle mechanism. I already had an additional spring at the pedal end and wasn’t sure how I was going to sort this. I had a quick look at Paul’s Contour and basically copied his arrangement although I found a convenient little bit to connect the spring to without having to attach it to the airbox.

He also commented on the play in the front wheel bearings. These can be a bit of a pain and its easy to overtighten them. So I just nipped them up a tiny bit.

I then headed off to ATS to get my new rear tyres fitted – there’s plenty left in the old ones, especially if I were to get them swapped over (the left always wears more then the right) but I decided that since I’ve already bought these tyres I might as well get some use out of them the rest of the season. Seeing as I spent a fortune there sticking new rubber on all four corners of the Cayman recently they swapped the tyres and balanced them for nothing which was nice. I also got 40 litres of fuel in the jerry cans. A note had come from the Post Office, someone had put insufficient postage on something for me, it was 10p short but there’s a £1 charge so I had to drive to the sorting office and pay my £1.10 to discover it was of course the HiSpec seal kits!

So I spent some of the afternoon rebuilding the HiSpec calipers to take them along as spares. This actually took less time than I’d expected as I know my way round them quite well by now. They actually look nice, are very nicely finished and everything fits very well. It’s just a pity the handbrake’s so awful, I can live with replacing the seals every season.

Once that was done I got the motorhome and trailer ready. Working overnight tonight so after a kip in the morning it’ll be straight off to Cadwell.

Rear calipers again

Well, having bodged a repair in the paddock at Brands the rear brakes had behaved impeccably during Sunday’s race. But I didn’t plan to turn up at Cadwell without a more definitive fix.

So, the cunning plan was to fix the HiSpec calipers by slapping new seals and o-rings in there but to investigate the Sierra calipers I originally got with the kit when I got it as we were waiting for ages for HiSpec to produce their handbrake caliper. So on Monday last week I ordered the HiSpec seal kits and went onto Ebay and ordered a set of EBC Yellowstuff pads for the Sierra calipers. I needed to make a decision which one to fit before Cadwell, the other set could then go along as backup.

As it was the decision was pretty easy as by Wednesday morning the parts hadn’t arrived from HiSpec, although they have finally taken some money off my card according to my online statement. So, Sierra calipers it is. The problem with these is that the way they’re mounted in the Fury means that the bleed nipple isn’t actually at the top of the caliper, so they need to be connected up and bled before they’re bolted into place.

So with less than 2 days to go to Cadwell I had to abandon progress on the BDN to get the Fury ready. This morning was spent on my driving course – compared to race tuition it was on the face of it good value at £80 for 4 hours but in reality it was all spent in a classroom and at an incredibly pedestrian pace. Anyway, I’m now fully speed aware and at the first sign of any lamposts at Cadwell am at risk of slowing to 30mph. At least it saved my licence getting 3 points.

First job of the afternoon was to get the rear undertray off. I’d been pleased that none of the screws had fallen out but that pleasure turned to frustration when the threadlock refused to let go and the button headed stainless screws rounded off nicely with the allen key So I had to get the drill to get the first 2 out then managed to shift the rest using the blowlamp to heat them. All a bit close to the fuel tank so I did have the fire extinguisher ready. Austen would have run a mile

With that off I could slacken off the handbrake cable and get going on the calipers. They needed packing away from the brackets a bit so I used a pair of washers on each side for this. With them connected up and wedged in place with the bleed nipple at the top I ran some fluid through then bolted them in position. I hopped in the car to find pretty much a total lack of brake pedal Not amused I ran some more fluid through and tried again – no better. After another go more air came out and at least after this I could pump the pedal up a bit which was an improvement. I then re-detached them and hung them up nice and high with the disk still in place and bled them again. This time was successful with a nice firm pedal. After reattaching the handbrake cable and adjusting it I was shocked to find that it worked! The HiSpecs wouldn’t even hold the car on the most gentle of slopes so it’ll be a bit of a novelty having a functioning handbrake. Of course it’s a year ago this weekend that I melted a piston through leaving the handbrake on, it was so ineffective that it wasn’t noticeable but effective enough to generate enough heat to wreck the brake.

Once that was done I checked the diff, prop and drive shaft bolts which have all stayed tight for quite a few races now. I slapped some fuel in and stuck the bodywork back on and she’s pretty much good to go.

Rear undertray done

The first job of the morning was to get the indent for the fuel tank sump sorted. This actually needed taking back quite a way because of the angle of the undertray. Once that was done I could cut the tray to size so it was just short of reaching the bottom edge of the bodywork. I didn’t actually make up the little fillet brackets and rivet them onto the indent until everything else was done and the tray was ready to fit onto the car but here’s a pic of it completed. I’d been a bit worried about how I was going to fix the rear of the tray but decided I’d get it in position with the body off and see where I could fix it to, the last thing I want is it being either floppy or insecure and doing a Phil Alcock!

With that sorted I could start thinking about how I was going to secure the rest of it – it already had 6 screws holding the front edge onto the chassis rail. I decided on a couple of brackets on the rearmost chassis rail just in front of the fuel tank and once they were cut and drilled I held the tray in place and got them fitted. It’s not as wonky as it looks here, honest! It was already starting to feel fairly rigid and my optimism was growing.

It was pretty simple then to just suspend the corners by strips of aluminium from the main chassis tubes at the rear, with these fitted it’s really very secure with no floppiness at all. Again it’s held onto the brackets with 5mm stainless screws into rivnuts.

And here’s a view from underneath of the finished article. Once it was all done I went round the screws pulling them out and adding some threadlock to try to prevent them vibrating out. Having started out a bit worried about how well it was going to work out I’m actually really pleased with it. Whether it’ll make any difference or not I don’t know but it certainly cleans up the underneath of the car a lot. I had to relocate my rear towing strap – this is now on the main chassis rail bolted to one of the holes you can see at the top of the picture above with a slot cut in the rear of the bodywork for it to protrude through.

Once I’d tidied up I did a couple of odd jobs and went through most of my pre-race checklist. The car’s now ready to rock and roll again. The next race is in 12 days time at Pembrey. I’m still thinking about testing – they have a test day there on the Friday and compared to lots of the places we go it’s pretty good value at £105 for a half day or £172 for the whole day.

Phew!

Although I said I’d sleep on it that wasn’t quite the truth cos I was working overnight. Still, a few more coppers in the BDN fund! I did have a couple of hours kip in the morning before rejoining battle with the sheared adapter. I got the extractor screwed into it then set about it with the hot air gun. Once the casing was nice and hot I gave it another tweak and lo and behold it moved! That was a huge relief. All I needed now was to replace the broken adapter and I was back in business. After a bit of head scratching and checking on threads it dawned on me that the threads on each side of the adapter were the same – I had a male hose end screwed into the adapter, on the other side of which was another male thread that screwed into the port on the end of the oil gallery. So effectively the adapter was not needed at all. I remembered then that the hose had been made with reused brass olives and figured this was probably where the oil was seeping from – it was obviously only happening when the oil was both hot and under high pressure hence the lack of drips in the garage and the paddock. Before setting off the oil wasn’t hot and whenever I get back into the paddock the oil’s hot but the pressure’s low because engine speed is low and the Busa oil pump is crap when it’s hot. So I made up a new hose with new olives and got that fitted.

Once that was done I decided to give the engine a bit of a clean before tucking it away with the new floor panel underneath it. After a bit of brushing with some petrol it looked nice and shiny as you can see in the pic above which also features the nice new oil pressure remote hose. I could then fit the new engine bay floor which isn’t actually as manky as it looks in this photo!

So, after having been contemplating all the aggro of getting the engine out and stripping it down by early afternoon I had the problem all sorted and the new floor in place I could then turn my thoughts to adding my very own double diffuser. OK, so it’s not going to be a diffuser but at least a flat panel under the rear of the car would go a long way to smoothing out the air flow. It’s a bit complex because the fuel tank has a small swirl pot built into the bottom of it. I also don’t want to attach the panel to the rear bodywork as that’s removable. I started off by cutting a sheet roughly to size, getting it temporarily fitted to the rear chassis rail with the trusty self tappers so I could mark up where it needed an indent for the swirl pot. I got it ready to refit for some more marking up then called it a day.

Flooring … and a problem

Well sure enough I ordered the aluminium sheet on Thursday afternoon and it arrived on Friday. After a load of measuring up I started marking out the sheet then cut it a bit oversize – I don’t trust the chassis to be symmetrical! With it held up underneath the car I could mark it to get an accurate fit then trimmed it to size. It’s the first time I’ve used the air powered shears I got in my last VAT-free Machine Mart shopping spree and they worked a treat. A couple of the dry sump bolts protrude down below chassis level so I needed to mark up and drill holes for those.

The next problem was how to fix it. It obviously needs to be removable and preferably fairly easily so. Other small challenges are fixing it in some way without significantly reducing the strength of the chassis tubes and making whatever fixings I use vibration proof. I think Dzus fasteners are what most use but they need quite a big hole so would need some brackets making up and riveting to the chassis to fix to. Otherwise I could use either self-tappers or rivnuts and my normal cap headed stainless screws. I think the latter with some threadlock would be more secure.

Following a couple of chats with brother Andy I riveted an aluminium flange across the front of the chassis to clip the leading edge of the undertray under and then drilled and initially fitted self tappers to hold it in place. This all worked out nicely and once I’d sorted out the holes for the sump tank bolts I decided firstly that self tappers would shake out in no time and secondly that I didn’t want to faff about with dzus fasteners. So I got the drill out again and fitted rivnuts all round.

At PDQ there had been a little puddle of oil under the engine after the dyno run. This was most odd as there’s never been a drop on the garage floor. While at Brands I had a good look underneath and couldn’t see any signs of oil having dripped from anywhere. There were no drips after the races either so I gave up on it. I decided to investigate a bit further before fitting the floor and spotted a bit of oil on the take off for the oil pressure gauge. This is on a length of braided hose which threads onto a brass adapter which in turn is threaded into the end of the main oil gallery. It looked like the oil was coming from the adapter so I got a spanner to nip it up. Disaster struck – with pretty minimal pressure on the spanner the adapter sheared off more or less flush with the crankcase face

Once I’d caught the oil and mopped up I tried getting the stub out with one of my extractors. This didn’t go well, it was requiring a lot of force to turn and it was just chewing its way through the brass of the adaptor without budging it. I decided to abandon before I either broke the extractor or simply stripped the brass out. I decided to sleep on it before attempting anything else but I think it looks like I’ll not only need to get the engine out but will also need to strip it to get the thing sorted.

Power Curve

Not much to report. Main thing the car needs is a good clean from the spray on the M4 on the way home from Brands

I thought I’d post up the torque/power curves from PDQ. The power is a little disappointing, I think it should be making a bit more power than it is. I can’t think of any good reasons why it isn’t though. Comparing it with Tim Hoverd’s CBR1000 I’ve actually got less power than him (145 v 149bhp) but the torque curve tells a different story. The Busa peaks at 90 ft-lbs but I’ve got over 75 from 4k upwards with a nice fat spread up to 9k. Tim’s peaks at 76 but doesn’t get above 50 until about 5k. This explains why my car’s so easy to get off the line, and why I can use less gears but have no power advantage at the top end.

One of the things I didn’t get round to over the winter was sticking a floor on the engine bay. Derek reminded me of this at Brands, asking why the car wasn’t trying to take off down the straight. I suspect the answer may well be that it is but I don’t have the sensitivity to feel it! After all I drove it round Snett on 3 wheels just thinking something was a bit odd :-/ So I’ve measured her up and ordered some aluminium. I could get it locally but it’s a pain transporting it and would need the motorhome plus an hour’s return journey. It’s actually cheaper to buy online which negates the £10 delivery charge so that was a bit of a no brainer.

One other thing is a public apology, to Dave Dawson who designed and built Paul Rogers’ Contour which is currently mopping up Class A without appearing to break sweat. In my musings about the Fury’s replacement I stated the Contour isn’t available as a kit, this was based on a discussion I had with Dave at Mallory last Autumn. He assures me it is very much available in kit form or indeed as a rolling chassis or turnkey car.

PDQ (again)

As the week went by the jobs needing doing on the Fury dwindled away and the anticipation grew. Last Sunday I adjusted the ride height at the front (I’d raised it when I went to Llandow a while ago) and redid the corner weights. I went over my checklist and was pretty sure the car was ready. I had a big weekend ahead and was acutely mindful of the fact that last time at PDQ the car broke and at brands this time last year I spent the weekend battling clutch problems. A problem at PDQ would wreck the weekend!

I was booked into PDQ for about 1pm and arrived a bit late as the M4 was a pain – busy and with loads of 50mph zones, all enforced by SPECS cameras. Nick was his previous helpful and friendly self and we got the car tied down on the rollers, bonnet off and he set up all his equipment – cold air supply, extractor fan and of course his computers. Once the oil was up to temp he did a power run – 141bhp @ 9500rpm. He then set to work on mapping it – working through all the different throttle setting, spending quite a lot of time on the bottom end and mid-range at part throttle openings to make it as driveable as possible. After almost an hour he stopped for a break, we were done by about 3.30. He produced another graph which shows a slight improvement but in fairness the curve wasn’t bad before, there were no flat spots etc. Peak power at the end was 145bhp which seems a bit low really, but torque was pretty healthy at 90 ft-lbs at just over 7k but it’s above 75 all the way above 4k.

It’s initially a bit nerve wracking seeing the car hitting max power inside a garage but the oil temp didn’t seem to go above 80 degrees. I’d also realised beforehand that it gets a much harder workout when out on track. I was pleased the car behaved herself and at least now I know she’s mapped correctly. So once I’d got my printouts and map etc. downloaded onto a USB stick I got her loaded back onto the trailer and headed off for Brands just after 4pm.

The M25 was as expected on a Friday evening and it took me over 2 hours to do the 63 miles. Once there I pitched camp, set up the awning and wandered round catching up with everyone – quite a few had been testing during the day. Then it was time to make some food and have a beer. Early start tomorrow – scrutineering at 7.45am and I’ll need to be signed on before then.

Post-Mallory Musings

Despite my woes at Mallory there was surprisingly little to do to the Fury once home. On Monday afternoon I wheeled her out of the garage, whipped the bodywork off and hosed all the crap off her. The replaced metalwork at the front end from last year’s Snetterton crash is looking decidedly second hand. Andy Bates did a sterling job at fixing and strengthening the front end but his paintwork is decidedly suspect, the replaced tubes are all going a bit rusty The unpainted parts are pretty rusted, the main culprits being the track rod ends and the ARB. I plan to partly dismantle it and after a bit of wire brushing get some Hammerite on there so next time the scrutineers call me in it at least looks better!

The next race is a double header weekend at Brands and I was thinking about booking testing on the Friday. Of course one drawback is that it’s expensive, the other is that there’s a risk of something happening to the car and missing the actual races. In the end I decided to see if I could book it into PDQ to get it mapped, so after a quick phone call it’s now booked in there for the Friday afternoon. PDQ are in Slough which for me is on the way to Brands.

I’ve also been doing some thinking. On Sunday morning Jen actually suggested I should get another car. She does sometimes tend to do this but it’s usually when I’ve been dropping plenty of hints, subliminal or otherwise. But this time I’m definitely not guilty m’lud. However, that’s not to say that one shouldn’t make the most of opportunities that present themselves, so I’m now considering my options. What I’d like to do is complete the season in the Fury and hopefully improve my driving skills a bit more as well as get the Fury going as well as I can but get going on another car so that I can be absolutely sure of having it ready for next season. It seems everyone gets this bit wrong and ends up either missing the first few races or doing them in their old car – these things always take longer than expected.

The Fury’s a nice car but it wasn’t actually designed for what it’s being asked to do, the race chassis is lowered by basically raising the pickup points for the suspension, you then have the issue of wheels hitting bodywork as the bodywork is also lowered. Also some of the engineering is at the edge of its performance envelope as it were, hence bent uprights when it’s hit a gravel trap sideways etc. Also it’s becoming increasingly clear that the aero on the newer Class A cars means they can carry corner speeds that are otherwise impossible and with a big tall bike engine up front the profile of the bodywork at the front is compromised. So I feel I’m pretty much narrowed down to a mid-engined car, and I want one that’s designed primarily as a race car rather than a converted road car. Tim Hoverd’s J15 is a lovely looking car but the amount of problem solving he’s had to do to stick a bike engine in the back and make it a race car would have had me self-harming like an errant teenager by now. I don’t have his skills and I simply don’t want to have that much work to do. Tim actually collected his chassis in August last year and is still some way from being finished despite having beavered away all winter.

Having vaguely thought about it for some time but in a much more focussed way for a day or so I think I can see my way forward and justify my decision-making to myself. There are many factors, including (but not limited to) the list below and in no particular order:

• Overall cost
• Ease of build
• Design features
• Looks
• Components used
• Ease of maintenance/repair
• Support available
• Whether Bob will fit in it

So here are the main candidates, in alphabetical order:

AB Performance Sabre Andy Bates has put all his experience of RGB into designing his new car, the first customer car has had one brief shakedown sessions so far.
BDN S3 Since I started in RGB the BDN has been at the front of most of the races. It’s difficult to separate out how much of that’s due to the car and how much down to Derek. Probably quite a lot of both! Designed and developed by the Baldwins who make extensive use of CAD.
Contour Cars RGB 09 I gather Dave Dawson who designed this car used to work at Lola. Certainly the car works very well, Derek (who drove it at Snetterton a couple of weeks ago) reckons it has more downforce than the BDN. The car also looks prettier since they slapped the Kawasaki green graphics on it.
Spire GTR The Spire was working well in John Cutmore’s hands last season breaking all the Class B lap records. Opinions are mixed about the aesthetics of the rear end but it’s clearly developing some good downforce – John was doing some brilliant times at Silverstone in the wet for the Birkett.

And then there are decisions about engines. The main options are Hayabusa again, ZX12, Fireblade (CBR1000) or GSXR1000. While the GSXR1000 is arguably a better engine in the bike than the Fireblade (both more mid-range and better top end power) its qualities in a car are somewhat of an unknown. The Fireblade seems to work OK unless your name’s Matt Green in which case you can stick the rods through the casings of two of them in a single weekend. The Hayabusa and ZX12 are both known quantities producing plenty of power and both seem robust. The Hayabusa probably has more torque but is more expensive, having said that it seems more plentiful than the ZX12 and probably edges it on reliability – one of the reasons for the strong price on Hayabusa engines is the demand for kits and race cars. I also know lots now about the Hayabusa and have plenty of spares, including a spare engine.