Vermeulen confident in Suzuki motor

Australian Chris Vermeulen believes a new Suzuki 800 engine spec will help reduce some of the weak points of the Japanese factory’s 2007 GSV-R contender.

Suzuki’s new V4 has already proved a massive improvement on last year’s 990cc four-stroke machine. And engineers have been quick to build a new motor for former World Superbike championship runner-up and American team-mate John Hopkins just two races into the new campaign.

Vermeulen and Hopkins were supposed to shakedown the new motor for the first time in a test at Jerez after the Spanish GP, but rain prevented the Rizla-backed duo from running it.

They will know wait until the Turkish GP in Istanbul before testing it.

Vermeulen told MCN: “It was disappointing with the rain. The area we need to be competitive with Ducati is pure out and out horsepower.

“To be more competitive with the other bikes like Yamaha and Honda, it’s putting the power to the ground on the first part of acceleration out of a corner.

“The Ducati is not very good at that but they make up for it with their horsepower, so we are looking at two completely different areas to improve.”

Hopkins told MCN earlier this week that the critical area of improvement was mid-range power, specifically between 10 and 14,000rpm to help with corner exit acceleration.

And Vermeulen said: “Like John said, it’s in 10 to 14,000rpm where we can get better. You are in that rev range in the middle of the corner and it just seems like the bike is not strong there.

“But the way our power delivery is it seems to spin the tyre in that range a lot too and that makes it more difficult.”