HP Ratings
When I went to work at Team Hansen in 1973, we were
just next door to Kawasaki R&D on Main Street, Santa Ana. My first visit to R&D
was a revealing trip. Right there in the middle of its own room, was a, at that
time, new, state of the art Heenan-Froude dyno, with a giant supermarket produce
department weighted dial for a readout.
I figure the one that just got 76 horsepower is somewhat advanced from the one
that was in R&D. We also used to sneak the bikes over to Jerry Branch's place
and use his dyno, a Clayton, and always got a horsepower or two more than the
one in R&D. Jerry's dyno was not always abused by the R&D Motocross guys, and
that's why we figured his was more accurate and better than ours.
Neither Jerry's or our dynos had computers, just those produce scale dials. I'm
happy to know that on a reliable new dyno, our suspicions have been confirmed,
just like a Detroit musclecar, the power levels are actually a bit higher than
what we were seeing way back then.
Both those dynos were chassis type, bolt the frame, or engine to it and run it,
not rear wheel type.
I always suspected the original dead stocker Z1's had very close to 100
horsepower as well, and Jerry's dyno got just at 100 horsepower on one early
into 1973. I figure we were also factored down on hp, just like musclecars, for
"insurance" purposes.