Competition CNC’s New Cylinder Head and Doug Meyer Help TFA set New Speed Record at Loring Maine
TFA arrived Friday at the old Loring SAC Air force base in Limestone Maine for the first of what is hoped to be an annual event by the LTA/ECTA. Friday was reserved for tech inspection with the first runs to start Saturday after the drivers meeting and group drive down the course for familiarization with the layout. It was agreed that everyone would not exceed 175 mph for the first pass at this new venue. The timing lights were set 1.5 miles from the start line so there was a mile of shutdown.
After the first 175 mph limited passes out of the way we were ready to get down to business and see what the ZX12r’s could do with the new cylinder heads at this awesome relic of the cold war. Two and a half miles of beautiful concrete, 750 feet above sea level. The conditions were good with a slight head wind out of the northwest.
Both of the bikes are 2000 zx12r Kawasakis with slightly different builds. Both1427cc and both have the newest design big valve, big bucket, CNC ported cylinder head by Competition CNC. We’ll refer to them as Karl’s and Jim’s bike.
Karl’s bike is significantly lowered and longer for LSR events and Jim’s bike is street ridden, slightly lowered and stock wheelbase.
Doug Meyer (with Muzzys for many years) rode both bikes to their best speeds of the event. With Doug being a veteran land speed racer and multi record holder at Bonneville, that's not so surprising. The first runs on Saturday were right on par with what we expected. Karl’s bike with Doug on it ran 208.6 mph and on Jims ran 203.2 mph on regular Shell pump fuel.
Sunday morning was a bit cooler and the breeze from the northwest from Saturday had spun around and was now behind us. We kept Doug busy all day jumping from one bike to the other and Karl riding his bike in between. Right out of the gate Karl went 212.2 mph setting a new record. That wasn’t going to be easy for Jim’s taller street bike to beat.
Looking at the data from the logger we decided to change sprockets on Jim’s bike and put some of VP’s MRX-01 fuel in it, and set it safely rich for the first run and send Doug out on it. As Doug disappeared into the blue heat mirage out of sight we heard over the radio 215.8 mph, we were in shock. It was another new record!
But it didn’t last long, just a half hour to be exact. After some tweaking of Karl’s fuel curve Doug hopped on Karl’s bike and shattered his 215 mph run on Jim’s bike with a 222.3 mph pass setting the record again and taking the title back to Karl’s bike!
So out came the laptop and we looked at all the data collected during the previous run on Jim’s bike. We took fuel out to get the A/F ratio closer to the sweet spot for the VP MRX-01. While looking at the data we noticed that the tire was slipping 2% and was getting upset over the expansion joints in the concrete. So we made some rear suspension adjustments and dropped the tire pressure hoping that we could regain the lead over Karl’s incredible 222 mph run. Doug disappears again into the blue mirage and over the radio comes 218.9 mph. Who would of thought yesterday that 218.9 would be disappointing? It wasn’t enough to retake the record again from Karl’s bike but it was still impressive for a daily driver street bike.
Now it was just past noon and the temps were climbing and the breeze weakening. We knew time was running out so we made some quick sprocket changes again on both bikes and headed out for another set of passes. Over the radio came 218 for Karl’s bike and 216 for Jims. After a few more passes at 219 and 216 it became obvious the favorable conditions were disappearing fast as the track temps were high and the breeze died down. In the end we could never best the 222.3 and 218.9 mph passes earlier in the day.
While packing up, it was pointed out that TFA’s two zx12’s had just gone faster than any naturally aspirated Kawasakis have ever gone! So a big thanks to Doug Meyer, Competition CNC, and the folks of LTA running the first of what we hope is an annual event.
