Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Pier-Francesco Chili's Corona Suzuki GSX-R750 Racer Test Pier-Francesco Chill 's Coro na-backed Suzuki GSX-R7S0. Good enough for three Wor ld Superbike victories in 1999 - and sixth in the Wor ld Championship final point standings. By Alan Cathcart Photos by Mark Wernham and Dirk Melkebeek eptem ber 12, 1999 was a red-lett er da te in Suzuki h ist ory - the d ay th e Japanese co m pany cl in ch ed four ma jor 1999 titles, inclu ding a trio of wo rld crow ns. A nd a ll of th em came with fou r-s tr o kes derived fro m ' the ir cus tomer stree tbike ran ge. Ter ry Rym er and [ehan d 'O rgeix rode to the World End u ra nce titl e o n their GSX-R750, a s imila r bi k e to t h e one on whic h Britain's Karl Harris took an u nderdog victory in the ina ugu ral European Superstock Championship the same dav . Also at Hockenheim, Stephane Chambon clinched the first-ever World Supersport Championship on his Corona Suzuki GSX-R600. And then Steve Webs te r a nd David James completed th e title run by winning Suz uki 's firstever World Sideca r titl e in Ge rma ny, with their GSX-R1100-based ou tfit. Th at su nny Sund ay at Hockenheim also provided the icing o n Suz uki's ca ke, w he n Pier-Francesco Ch ili rode hi s Als ta re Corona GSX-R750 to Suz u ki's first-ever dry -w eather World Superbike victory ou tside Japan - thus illustrating that his rai n-lashed win at Austria's A-1 Ring two weeks earlier hadn't bee n a fluke . It was 'a fitting fina le to a yea r of hard work by bo th team and rider, setti ng the perfect seal to their d ebut season w ith th e fuel-injected fou r-cylind er w hich, a w e ek la ter , a d de d to Suzu ki 's 1999 honor roll by taking Aus tralia n Mat Ml a di n to th e AMA Su p erbike ti tl e . Then th e season wa s rou nded off in perfect sty le w hen facto ry test rid er Akira Ryo won one race and finished seco nd in the other for the overa ll victorv in the final ro und o f th e Wor ld Superb ik e se ries a t Su g o . And that s till left his teammate Keiichi Kitagawa leading the 19'99 All-Ja pan Su pe rbi ke Ch a m p ions hip, with two rounds still to be run. S ~ G> .c E G> > o Z · 22 You might say that this was the yea r the Suzu ki GSX-R750 finally came good at the highest level of Su perbike racing. The qu es tion of how to turn the world's best -selling 750 spo rtbike into a genuine World Superbike con tender is a puzzle the Su zuki factory' s rac e en gineers ha ve been as king themselves for the pas t three yea rs - ever since the 1996 debut of the current GSX-R750. But th is year it seems they found the answer, as the cha nce to rid e Ch ili's bike at the Belgian Als tare Corona team's local Zolder track reveal ed. After test ing th e carbureted Suzuki factory Superbike jn eac h of the last two yea rs, I' m fortu nate to be able to com pa re an d contras t the cu rrent fuel -injected GSX-R wit h its fore bea rs . And altho ug h the bike James Wh itha m put on the p odium at Brands last season as a trailer for Kitagawa's Suzuki victory in th e fina l 1998 Wo rld Su perbike round a t Sugo repres en ted a big im provement in race-level hand ling ove r the flighty, sq u irmy '97 machine, it still didn't hav e th e d riv e out of turns, o r the ex p losive engine a ccel era tion , need ed to ge t on term s with the classlead ing Hondas an d Duca tis. Bu t fo r '99 Su zu k i h a d a majo r sh ak eu p, sw itching th eir Wo rld Su per bike effo rt to the Alsta re Corona team, w hose GSX-R600 had wo n the Japan ese firm the '98 Wo rld Superspo rt cro wn . Suzuki entrusted them for th e first tim e w it h th e fu el -in jec ted version of the GSX-R th at had be en la unche d in the m ark etpl a ce a yea r p rev ious ly . The combinati on of the new bike, Als tare's as tu te and well-structured team ope ra ti on , h ard wo rk b y Suzu k i's r a ce department an d the rid ing sk ills of new recru it C hili - w hile somewha t overshadowing rookie teammate Ka tsu a ki Fujiwa ra - has transformed th e GSX-R' s World Superbike performance. T hey can also thank another vi tal ing red ient: a big improvement in the Du nl op race tires. So exiting the last chicane at Zolder o nto the pit straight, yo u u se w hat is now the outstandi ng side-grip of Du nlop's 16.5-inc h rea r slick to get a hard , ea rly d rive ou t of the turn. And you ' re rewarde d with the kind of ultra respo nsive , m u scular b u t s till co ntro llab le , burs t of power that used to be the exclusive property in the four-cylind er cam p of th e Hond a V-fou r. There's sim ply no comparison between the power delivery of tod ay's fuel-injec ted Suzuki a nd the old carbure ted bike, w hose pickup outof turns was much more g rad ual - and, by Wo rld Superbike s ta n da rds, even leisurely. 111is in tum made it parad oxically mo re d ifficul t to rid e than tod ay' s EFi bike, because you had to work har d at keep ing it revving up high , where all the stro ng power wa s. Chi li's Suzu ki is a lo t di fferent - not only in the way the power is delivered , bu t also how m uch more of it there is, all through the rev range . Zolder ' s trio of chicanes under line the effective ness of ac tua lly fitti ng the b ike' s s m a lle r 45m m throt tle bod ies (ho mologa ted via the factory race kit - Mladin 's Yoshimura team in AMA Su pe rbike uses 47mm bodi es, accord ing to Alstare), to give a bet ter pick u p from low rpm. Yet th ere isn't the sudden bu rst of po wer from a cl o s ed th r o t t le so ty pi cal of a n EFI mot or, w hich caused Chili so mu ch difficulty at th e start of th e year. Remapping the fue l injec tion has rem oved that - bu t without sacrificing the low-down punch tha t has the fro nt wheel wavi ng in the air in first , second and even thi rd gear. Not only has the Suzuki engine bette r pick up lo w d o w n , it co mes on s tronger th a n before a t a rou nd 9000 . r pm . T h e n t heres a no t he r k ick oJ power at 11,000 rpm that se nds the di g-, ita l tach om eter -read ing on the compact A u stralian-m ad e 132-ch a n n el MoT ec in foce n te r (w hic h in corp o rate s th e bike's en tire o n- board tele m etr y system ) scoo ting u p toward th e 14,400 rpm re v-lim iter. Ta p p ing the sweets h if ti ng , wide-o pe n p o w e r- s h ift er repeats the process, for the 72 x 46mm 16-val ve EFI engine has a mu ch g rea ter a ppetite fo r revs th an the carbu re ted . bi ke eve r d id . It' s fueled no t o nly by th e lightwei gh t thin -g a uge s ta in less-, stee l Akrapovic exhaust the team no .y u ses , bu t also by th e co ns ta nt su cces s io n of n e w p ar ts d e li v e red by th ~ Suzu ki factory to the Co rona team thi s seaso n. Th ou gh retaining chai n drive to the d oub le overhea d cams ha fts, rather than' th e gea r-d rive o p tio n p revi o usly used o n t h e wo rks Su z u ki s , th ese p ar ts inclu de a lighter cra nk, ligh tweight tworing pistons (ru nni ng in ch ro me bores, hence the lack of oil bl ow-bv), rev ised camsha fts, titanium va lves ari'd connect-

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