Suzuki Hayabusa Sport Prototype
Car of the day #238: 2002 Suzuki Hayabusa Sport Prototype 1300 – Bananarama
Spoiler alert: I enjoy track driving.
I'm not the fastest, but I’m generally far from the slowest or most dangerous. I enjoy learning a course relative to the vehicle I’m driving; when to brake, when to turn, when to accelerate.
Gaining that glimpse of how to go faster, then trying to achieve that lap time drop is a wonderful way to spend a weekend.
Having spent a bit of track time in several cars and three full days at the Bridgestone Racing Academy (didn’t crash, wasn’t last), to me, the feeling of going quickly in a track car is unmatched by many other things. Thankfully, I haven’t the cash to burn on hot laps.
These days, however, track cars tend to look a bit…how should I put this…they look so bro.
2002 Suzuki Hayabusa Sport Prototype 1300 at the Tokyo Auto Salon • source unknown
The KTM X-Bow looks pre-crashed; said lovingly Caterham Sevens resemble oversized Kinder Surprise toys; and brands from Ariel to BAC to Zenvo look best when you’ve swooped through the drive-thru for a macchiato, while wearing a HANS.
It wasn't always like this.
Keen drivers like Italian counts, French privateers, and, sure, Steve McQueen, could order and drive race-ready cars on the road that didn't necessarily look like race cars or have as many compromises as track day specials have these days.
Definitely, order yourself a new Porsche GT3 or whatever, but wouldn’t it be daft to risk the paintwork on a leather-lined sports car just to hit some imaginary lap time — or, worse, the feelings I’ve described above?
Formula Suzuki Hayabusa • via Suzuki Sport, eBay
In the early 2000s, Suzuki Sport envisioned and created the Formula Suzuki Hayabusa, a short-lived open wheeled race series that used formula car chassis powered by (you guessed it) the firm's heroic 1.3-litre Hayabusa engine.
After playing around with that project — and associated Playstation 2 game — Suzuki Sport began to openly wonder: "What if we could drive a car like this on the road?"
2002 Suzuki Hayabusa Sport Prototype 1300 chassis • via Suzuki Sport
Once upon the 2002 Tokyo Auto Salon, Suzuki unveiled their solution: the Suzuki Hayabusa Sport. Thankfully, Suzuki's web page about the car is miraculously still online IN ENGLISH, with stats! and its six reasons for creating the "ultimate light weight sport car" are as follows:
- Super light weight
- Equal weight distribution on all four wheels
- Low center gravity
- Light weight on overhang part
- Short wheelbase
- Minus lift aerodynamics
As far as weight goes, this little banana is just 550 kg (1212 lbs), and powered by the Hayabusa engine — 1.3-litres and 175 horsepower at 9,800 rpm — with a six-speed sequential transmission, steel space frame, carbon composite bodywork, double wishbone independent suspension at all four wheels, and, of course, disk brakes all 'round.
Interestingly, the drag coefficient is just 0.29 while the body creates a nominal amount of downforce — just as the brief called for.
Though Suzuki is quite forthcoming with specifications, I haven't been able to find performance statistics anywhere—I'd wager it'd keep up with many of the track day cars now on the market.
2002 Suzuki Hayabusa Sport Prototype 1300 • via Suzuki Sport
Sure, its Panoz-like snout is quite racy, but in a more subdued hue I think the Hayabusa Sport would slip through traffic without anyone assuming it was anything more interesting than an Eagle Talon (and without assuming that the driver was a Monster Energy athlete.)
Of course, Suzuki never ended up building this flat-floor, mid-front engined sports car, which is a shame, because I enjoy track driving — and I'd love to take the Hayabusa Sport out for a few (hundred) laps.
