Even F1 cars don't sound like this anymore...

This has to be the best sounding motorcycle to ever exist. I come to this clip back every now and then over the years. Nothing has beaten it yet.

Sounds exactly like a 2.4L V8 F1 Engine, amazing! Can't wait until they run the engine during a race weekend.

The sound is due to the "screamer"-setup. In a four stroke engine every cilinder has fired once on a 720 degree rotation. In a screamer engine every 180 degrees a cilinder fires. Opposite to a "big bang"-setup in which the four (or 5 or whatever) cilinders fire in a close interval, such as the Cross-plane crankshaft as Yamaha is currently using. Because of the constant interval between firing cilinders, the rpm's of a screamer engine appear to be higher compared to other setups.

Video is 15 years old, i keep coming back to it😂

my gawd.. i thought that was a v12 f1 at 1st

Kawasaki....Come back to MotoGP!!!

Now V4, crossplane, desmo engine pee in their pants hearing this

awesome sound and one of the best looking moto gp bikes of 2008,hopefully running at the front soon

For me best motorcycle sound ever. I love F1 sound. I love that Kawasaki Ninja ZX-RR sound. That's music for my ears.

Kawasaki may not be in MotoGP anymore. But we’re still listening to and talking about this incredible aural delight! Pure ear candy!

Kawasaki has always been and will always be my favorite bike company. I love their bikes and it's a dream for me to be able to own one in the future. If I won the lottery I'd find one of these beauties and ride it. The sound alone would make me think I was in heaven.

fuck this video never gets old!

I searched for this underrated video for too long.

that sound is pure bliss does anybody not think its heaven on earth

Was there for the three days for the race weekend... great circuit with plenty of places to watch from... stayed on for the Monday and saw the screamer... excellent!

That s the sweetest sound I ve ever heard till date! The sweetest ever.

Saw this being rested at Le Mans the day after the race... amazing sound.. it sounds just like an F1 Car

i don't even watch motorcycle racing and that sound is just awesome. love it.

Ciao from Italy I hope this kawa will really fly! Go Kawa go!!!!!

oh my days!! what a sound, well done kawasaki!!! 10/10

Such a beauty

that sound is unbelievable ;) kawasaki ninja and aprilia mile factory are my favorites ;)

Bro the goosebumps, ONLY ON THE PITLANE ACCELERATION

That flyby in the end... wow.

hahaha, I agree, good old Mamola will love the sound of this one.

Everybody's a screamer.. until the real screamer zips in 💥🔥

Kawasaki! Can we hear them again please.

I have to agree with Sunedosa & others, it's ridiculous to even suggest this is a fake unless you know nothing about it. People on this site seem compelled to comment even if they have no idea what they're talking about. Anyone reading MCN has been reading about this engine & the incredible noise it makes for months. Kawasaki test rider Olivier Jacques has been testing it since 2007. I'm just amazed they've managed to get a pneumatic valve engine to rev as high as the Ducati Desmodromic. Class!

Love that sound!

Feel like yesterday

wow... that Monster sticker looks epic!

I still watch this video years later; nice!

sound of the engine is awesome.I have zzr and the sound is awesome on kawa.

These were not regular i-4 engines... they were "long bang" which is called a screamer but is different then a conventional screamer we find in every flagsihp i4.

the best sound!

I miss this scream at Donington warming up everyones Rain drenched tents :)

Kawasaki era el alma de las bestias ,y la mas bonita de las motos gp ,vuelve a gp porfavor

Damn 12 years ago...

sounds absolut sick! Damn bro

man it sounds like an f1 car!!!god i love that sound!!!

Honda cbx-1000 & Kawasaki zx-rr. Beautiful sound😘

I love the characteristic sound of the motogp kawa! it seems always to be on 30k rpm! wow!!!

Well I never been to a live Gp so I will ahve to take your word for it.But if they make that sound DAMMM thats sweet.

Yes,the screamer lives on! Hope it's on track for Donington.

Sounds absolutely fantastic! And it's not fake as someone says, you can find same video from Kawasaki racing team site.

Gotta see Kawa back in Motogp!!

imagine rollin up downtown on friday night with that screamer

omg the sound... !!! niiiiiice

Saw this being tested at Le Mans on the Monday after the race... amazing sound... sounds like and F1 car.

amazing! what a sound!

wow wow wow, that sounds amazing! Awesome bike!

gonna see this in sepang 09. cant wait

A screamer engine has an even firing order compared to 'normal' engines having uneven firing orders. thats what gives it the high pitched engine noise

Thanks man, I've been looking for video of the screamer for months!

During WW2, Kawasaki manufactured Hien which were fighter planes with liquid-cooled V12 engines.

"Let the good times roll"

The Bike has a screamer Engine. Its a crossplane crank, with the journals 90 degrees apart instead of a normal flatplane crank where you have journals 180 degrees apart. That gives the charicteristic sound. F1 cars use the same configuration. It makes the torque more controllable and makes mre even power.

The MotoGP sound ... 2009 also available for street the very first time ever: The 2009 R1 with cross plane crankshaft and an ignition order of 270-180-90-180 (which makes the MotoGP sound). It is responsible for the fact that the combined torque graph (combustion + initial) is pretty the same like the combustion torque itself. This leads to a superb controlable power delivery!

That thing is unbelievable! It sounds like an F1 car...... so badass!

GO FOR IT KWAKA

yep had a kawa dirtbike, REAL sound

you are right there m8, lets just hope!

watch the crewman holding the bike at 0:12. when he takes his hand off the throttle to hand over the bike to the racer, he rotates his wrist forward and thus, the bike drops in rpm. also, when the racer mounts the bike, yes his hand flicks outward without any change in rpm, but he was adjusting his hand position at that point, like any normal bike rider would do when they mount. when he takes off, its also obvious what his hands are doing. the difference in rpm may be his clutchwork.

I was at Oulton Park for the BSB round, the 600s do scream.... 1st day I was there I went deaf...and I ride a 1100 kwak with a straight through pipe!!!

Black and Green

by far the best sound in moto GP since 2 stroke engines

Sounds pretty sweet.

oh wow. i had no idea. i thought all four stroke four cylinder where running in series, having each cylinder do one of the four strokes (intake, compression, burn, exhaust). so i guess i will google why the big bang principle is more commonly used. thanks for the reply!

the big green machine sounding so so mean!!!

would love to here this at the TT

Kawasaki Ninja all the way !!! :D

fcuk that is ridiculous what a sound KAWASAKI PLEASE bring this to donnington park

waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!! sickest noice ever

@morbo123456 thanks for the info though. Can't wait to kawa get back into the GP

We'll take the ice-cream van and put the Lammbretta in the back so it looks like we rode down on it

Man sounds like a F1 car but eeeerrrr 10 times better!!!!

Quel bruit, j'en bave sur mon clavier! Si seulement ma p'tite ER6 faisait le même bruit ^^. Vive le team green!!

OMFG COOL BIKE!

Good call my well learned friend. Yamaha worked on the "long bang" if you remember but it tore up the primary gears and destroyed the tyre. Even honda got into the action with their V5 package firing in a real strange order? The big bang theory (in bike engines at least) says that a large bang followed by smaller consistent inputs allows the tyre to recover if it starts to lose traction, whereas a constant poppin' would keep it sliding raising the chance of highside & lowsides (and Pain) :-)

I love that fuckin engine❤️🔥🔥🔥🔥

my god, u r a poet! :D

love the sound for sure .

WESTY :D Best rider in the paddock justt hasn't gotten the chance to prove it!

I believe i've heard that they will wait until winter/spring testing so they have a little more time for R&D. I believe they said to expect it in 09....

Why did KZfaq recommended me this

@Co6Engine It's not the exhaust, it's the firing order of the cylinders that produces that sound. Just like Yamaha's R1 with the crossplane crank sounds like a V motor, because of the firing order. The exhaust that was on that bike in this clip does amplify the noise.... by factor 1000 :)

yep and the cbr250rr too!

I think thats the last thing we're interested in when we come to watch this video. THE SOUND OH GOD THE SOUND

Its cause the screamer engine is applying consistent force to the wheel, theres never any time for the engine to relax - hence the sound.

They don`t. It was a prototype that Kawasaki tried out. It made better HP, but it was really hard to use it and thus it was slower unfortunately, cuz it sounded nuts :)

the sound does'nt have much to do with the exhaust itself it's a combination of the exhaust and the way the engine fire's on some of the stroke's it fire's 2 cylinder's at a time that's why u get such a good sound.

StreetStalker: No exhaust. I've taken off a slip on from my ZX11 one time, and it did sound like that(super high-pitch, at high RPM it's definitely sound like F1 racing car) and realized it was too loud(high pitch noise) to ride around comfortably.

Screamer means that the ignition of all four cylinders is in an order with the same temporary gap. The contrary is the Big-Bang where the ignition of always two cylinders - in a fourcylinder of course - is shorter than between the other two following. So you make some kind of 2 cylinder out of a fourcylinder. The big bang concept is not as aggressive as the Screamer-concept and by far not as loud. Kawasaki is the only one using it.

The engines in moto GP are limited to 800cc. Beside that for induction the pneumatic system is used and timing between fireing cylinders is more equal, as in normal engines, but at much higher revs. All that makes this screaming sound.

Sounds wonderful.

@bjoerrn1991 Thats the point. There is no exhaust silencer, just a simple pipe :)

on moto gp 3 for xbox this bike sounds kinda like that. I thought it was incorrect but this video proves me wrong :D

@brolicmode if you knew about motorcycle engine parts, youd know that due to the smaller engine parts they can rev alot higher than your typical engine (because they weigh less) and that's what happens in a F1 which creates a scream effect.. this is a race bike so it revs really high and the firing order in the engine also amplifies this noise, this is more than possible, and some street bikes even sound pretty high pitched... like my yamaha r6 it revs up to 18,000 rpm redline,sounds so good :)

Wonder whatever happened to this bike...in a museum somewhere...at Kawasaki Headquarters?