At 365 km/h on a Kawasaki H2R on a provincial road!

In memory of Burt Munro, events still take place in New Zealand where powerful vehicles race at breakneck speeds. This is the very essence of the events organized by the Landspeed New Zealand association for speed enthusiasts. The record-breaking race began on March 6 at Reporoa on Goudies Road, where Scott Wilkins’ Kawasaki reached a top speed of 364.5 km/h and an average round trip of 358.4 km/h. This all happened on a 7km tarmac road (or so they claim, but at these speeds it’s a lot less…) in the New Zealand countryside. Scott Wilkins set the New Zealand road speed record.

The motorcycle chosen for the record was a Kawasaki H2R, the block with a centrifugal supercharger tuned to over 303 horsepower (compared to the original 267). It might seem like an easy task to keep the throttle open until the bike hits 365 km/h, but at those speeds you need icy nerves and some serious control skills to keep the bike on the road.

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Goudies Road has been a New Zealand favorite for such feats since at least 1996. With a length of 7 kilometers, which has been verified and recognized by the FIA, the 2.7 kilometer central section is absolutely flat, with a gradient overall less than 0.10%, while FIA ​​rules require you to be less than 1% must remain.

In the video (from Scott Wilkins’ YouTube channel) we get a glimpse of one of the record attempts and understand how narrow a road can be at speeds over 300. In fact, the Kawasaki H2R had already had a similar record, when multiple World Supersport champion Kenan Sofuoglu broke the 400 km/h barrier in 2016. This time the setting was in Turkey, on the wide bridge over the bay of Izmit in the Sea of ​​Marmara.