'I have gone to Daytona Bike Week every year for the past decade and each year I have seen more and more Hayabusas. In 2002 I was there on my Suzuki GSX-R750 and waiting at a stoplight on International Speedway Boulevard when a dozen 'Busas modified to the max-extended and lowered, all with nitrous or turbos-surrounded me, ready to attack the green light. Wow! The excitement I felt when they took off...it was at that precise moment I said to myself, 'One day I will have my own.'
"I bought my 'Busa in '04 from a woman in the city of Terrebonne, just north of Montral. It had 750 miles on it. I originally planned to keep it original, but less than a month later I was already modifying it with new wave rotors, braided lines, 4-into-1 Yoshimura exhaust and more. One day I was searching the Web and came across one of Motorhead's Ghetto Turbo systems for sale, and you can imagine the rest. This made a very acceptable 325 horsepower at the rear wheel, but I still wanted more.
"My buddy Mario had a turbo 'Busa that won the 2006 SuperFlow/Wyotech Brute Horsepower Shootout at Bike Week, making 520 bhp at the rear wheel. On my way home from Daytona that year I decided to contact Richard Peppler at RCC Turbos (www.rccturbos.com) and tell him I wanted to win that competition in '07. He talked me into a Garrett GT 40-R turbo and I handed my bike over to him. Once he got the bike set up on the dyno, he asked me how much horsepower I wanted. I told him 600 bhp would be great, and he answered back, 'Is 612 enough or do you want more?' Later, he called me back and said, 'How about 648.45 bhp?' Right away I thought life insurance: time to take out a good policy, especially since I ride the bike on the street and I'm planning to start drag racing as well! And, of course, we won the 2007 Brute Horsepower Shootout at Bike Week."