BMW S1000RR M PACKAGE
Brain-scrambling speed, yet astounding usability – welcome to the hyper-sport-tourer
THIRTY YEARS AGO Yamaha’s FZR1000 was the most super-ist superbike you could buy. This very pamphlet tested the 1989 model at 124bhp and 10,250rpm (on a dyno more generous than today) and 72 grunts of torque, and Yamaha claimed 216kg dry – with 19 litres of fuel and a splash of oil and so on, that’s about 235kg wet. It was a boundary-shifting powerhouse. Capable of wasting the rear tyre with a dab of clutch, the FZR topped 150mph on our two-mile test strip and was the sort of bike that inspired the 100bhp limit proposed by Euro windbag Martin Bangemann. I remember letters from readers, ‘what’s the point of an FZR?’ – surely normal folk couldn’t deal with such mad performance. These memories flicker through by brain as I tease the throttle on BMW’S latest S1000RR and the surrounding Leicestershire landscape instantly becomes a streaky golden blur. The inline four is utterly ridiculous. Capable of 180mph in under a mile from a standing start, the RR has 205bhp at the tormented tyre (on a dyno not famed for generosity), 86 lb.ft of wallop and is 193.5kg ready to rock – so has exactly twice the power-to-weight ratio of an FZR1000. Just dwell on that. Not just a few more horses, not a tad less weight, but twice the power-to-weight of a bike that had intruding do-gooders in a flap. And they say sportsbike development has stagnated.
It’s not just all crazy top-end either, oh no. Rather than restrict themselves with a single cam, the 14,000rpm inline four has Shiftcam. The inlet camshaft has two cams for each valve – one for bottom-end performance, the other for high-rev madness. Widgets known as ‘shift packs’ slide the camshaft to switch lobes at 9000rpm – the highest changeover revs of any variable-valve engine ever, done in a remarkable 4.4 thousands of a second. BMW say the system increases economy by 4%, cuts emissions, boosts low to mid-rev torque, and increases high-rev power.
It’s honestly mind-blowing. Use the light twistgrip and sweet fuelling to feed in a few drops of unleaded at low revs, and the 999cc unit romps forward with the long-legged thrust of a Kawasaki ZZR1400. Midrange roll-on response has the surge of a supercharged H2, and the top-end rush is so, so, so intense that it’s nigh-on impossible to access on a dappled British road. Any gear, any revs, and 10% throttle stretches the space-time continuum. ‘I am in awe of it,’ says editor Hugo Wilson. ‘Its high-rev tickover is menacing, and every ride you think “how the hell can anyone use this power?” It’s amazing but also slightly terrifying...’ not just straights where the RR defies physics. Compact, sharp, light, it slices corners without you realising you’ve made an input. In the same way the engine is stupendous at part effort, so is the handling; reach a favourite series of turns and the RR scythes through at big lean and with 600-like corner speed, while requiring little more than a finger on each ’bar end. Being the M Package means carbon wheels for reduced gyroscopic inertia and lower unsprung mass, and this 205-horse litre bike weighs 2.5kg less than a Kwak ZX-6R. The KTM is more tossable on wriggling lanes, but from 60mph the BMW is Cornering King (© MCN).
You can make it even sharper. Swap from Road to Dynamic mode (or Dynamic Pro, or explore the Race settings) and the motor is even more aggressive and the semi-active suspension gives sportier damping. Every ride feels like you’re P. Hickman Esq. on the Isle of Man. With cornering ABS and controls for traction, slides and wheelies, the difference between the RR and other traffic is like the difference between a Typhoon FGR4 and a Zeppelin.
Yet even more remarkable than standard-setting performance is the fact this is also the friendliest and most usable large-capacity sportsbike. Suspension absorbs bumps in Road mode, the chassis is always utterly secure, fuelling is smooth, and it averages 47mpg (our old FZR did 38). There’s a satnav in the wide colour dash (it uses an app on your phone), heated grips, and hill-hold control. Oh, and cruise. ‘Having cruise control is perhaps the highlight,’ reckons Hugo. ‘Without having to grip the throttle you set speed, move against the tank, sit upright, and motorways are comfy.’ An S1000RR M Package is £19,700. That’s the same as a basemodel Ducati Panigale V4, cheaper than a Honda Fireblade SP, but still a lot of money. However, the common or garden S1000RR has the same mental engine and sublime chassis, TC, modes and fancy ABS, plus the colour TFT dash, but costs £15,290. Which, funnily enough, is what a 1989 FZR1000 cost in today’s money.
‘Every ride feels like you're P. Hickman on the Isle of Man’