The engine you see before you is not your average V-twin. With extensive S&S engineering accomplishments, nothing compares to the 160ci Pro Stock powerhouse. This billet beauty is a 60-degree monster delivering well over 300 horsepower at the rear wheel of any race bike! Designed to shock the drag racing world, the S&S Billet Pro Stock engine is as good looking as it is a mechanical masterpiece.
Built with billet crankcases and heads, the engine is an manufacturing marvel. Still using pushrod technology, the engine has links to past four-cam designs—but just barely. The billet Pro Stock flywheel assembly carries billet aluminum connecting rods on a 1.500-inch crankpin. Built for racing—and racing only—the bore and stroke is 5.118 X 3.875-inch coupled with 2.710-inch intake and 2-inch exhaust valves. This combination, along with automotive-style rocker arms allows the Pro Stock to rev to about 10,000 rpm! There are a variety of available S&S cam designs, but they typically entail 1.00-inch of lift—which of course means the valve springs must be incredibly strong.
A pair of downdraft intakes are fed by S&S designed fuel injection, the very same VFI system available for street bikes from 80ci to 124ci, which demonstrates how versatile the S&S ProTune software really is. Another unique feature of the Pro Stock engine is the built-in six-speed automatic transmission. When installed in a drag race chassis, the rider has a normal clutch lever to use for only the initial first gear start, but once off the line he uses a pushbutton to jump through the remaining five gears.
When this 175-pound engine and transmission are mounted in a Pro Stock bike—like the Drag Specialties/G-Squared/S&S bike piloted by Chip Ellis—it can break through the ¼-mile lights at just under 7 seconds and reach speeds of over 190mph in that time. This is clearly not just any old engine.
There are seven teams competing in the NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle class using S&S engines to go up against the other manufacturers (Harley-Davidson® and Suzuki). The riders of these seven bikes experience power that most of us can’t even imagine. To fully understand what those seven seconds matched to a ¼-mile represent, take a look at a clock with a second hand. Watch a full seven seconds. Now imagine going 0-60mph in just under one-second. Then visualize 0-100mph in two seconds total, and in two more seconds (four total) picture flying at 150mph–on two wheels. That friends, is what fast is all about. Chip’s best run ever blasted him through a quarter mile in 6.911 seconds, at 193.21 mph!
If you have not attended an NHRA event and witnessed the sounds of the S&S Pro Stock powered teams, it is an absolute must do. There is still one race left in the 2006 season, held in Pomona, California in early November, during Love Ride Weekend (next week). If you miss that, just go to www.sscycle.com over the winter and you will find the 2007 race season schedule as soon as it is released.
We hope to feature a couple of bikes, exclusively built around this new S&S powerhouse over the next couple of months.
