Fancy a Yamaha R7, with nearly double the power? Now you can!

If you’ve ever fancied a small, lightweight, road-based bike that can hold its own against 1,000cc machines, we have the answer for you. Back in 2022, a team from GBKMotos set about turning the Yamaha R7 into a turbocharged, track-ready race bike.

And we want one!

And to prove the concept was sound and reliable, GBK took it racing. Instead of rocking up to the Magny-Cours 500 Miles with the usual brace of 1000cc superbikes, the Swiss outfit turned up with its CP2-powered R7 turbo project.

You may also like to read our Yamaha R7 review

The idea dates back to 2022, shortly after Yamaha launched the R7. While most of us were arguing about whether it was sporty enough, GBKmotos founders Gilles Kuffer and Vincent Buclin were asking a different question: could Yamaha’s 689cc parallel twin be tough enough to last the six-hours needed to complete the 500-mile race, without embarrassing itself in a field dominated by litre sports bikes. The answer, it turns out, is yes. With a few caveats.

In 2022, the R7 Turbo made its Magny-Cours debut with Buclin, Kuffer and Robin Mulhauser riding. With a mixed lineup of riders and the team finding its feet in the event, the R7 finished 34th overall. Fast forward to 2023, and with professional pilots Robin Mulhauser, Sébastien Suchet and Valentin Suchet aboard, the turbo R7 ran faultlessly for the entire race and claimed a fifth-place finish overall.

While the concept of the bike was simple enough, the execution was a little more complex. The team planned to bolt a turbo to the CP2 engine and use boost rather than displacement to close the gap to the 1000cc machines that dominate endurance grids. A Garrett turbo running around 0.5 bar of boost pushes rear-wheel output to somewhere between 110 and 130bhp, depending on setup, nearly double the standard R7’s 72bhp. It also boosted torque to a claimed 80Nm (59 lb ft).

Engine management is handled via a Woolich Racing interface developed in-house by GBKmotos, while the rest of the bike was reworked to survive hours of hard running. The bike gained Öhlins suspension, an endurance fuel tank, carbon Rotobox wheels and the ABS was ditched in favour of a more analogue setup.

And while 120bhp from a CP2 might not sound like much, the internals of the engine, crank, piston and rods, were all stock. If those were upgraded, and the boost increased, quite a bit more power could be unlocked.

Images GBKMoto / Facebook

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