MT-10 joins 200bhp club?

Yamaha’s MT-10 only puts out a trifling 155bhp. Thankfully Yamaha’s R&D department are remedying matters with this, a turbo version capable of 200bhp+

Last year Yamaha registered several patents showing a turbo bolted to what looked like an MT-09. And now we get this spyshot of a Yamaha MT-10 prototype sporting a serious amount of pipework, heat shielding and whopping air intake on the left hand side. Is it a turbo? Bike’s experts think so.

‘That’s certainly a big outlet pipe and it would make you think it’s a turbo,’ says Jack Frost of Holeshot Tuning, who have built several of the world’s fastest turbo-charged bikes. ‘Most of our bikes have 2.5in outlet pipes, though some of our really big stuff is 3.5in. I’d say that the one on the MT-10 looks approximately 2.5in.’

The huge intake on the left side of the bike visible in some shots sealed it for Jack, who also reckoned there’s more room in front of the MT-10 motor for a turbo than there is on the MT-09. Ben Shaw from Extreme Creations makes turbo kits for the MT-10 and agrees with Jack: ‘The dump pipe suggests a turbo and I would say it’s a small one based on them packaging it behind everything.’

Given that the current MT-10 produces 155bhp, a turbo could easily push that over 200bhp, matching Kawasaki’s supercharged Z H2. However, Ben suspects that huge numbers might not be the mission. ‘If it’s a small turbo it’s probably designed to create more torque than outright power, probably with a fairly large exhaust housing (based on the size of the dump pipe) to get enough flow so as not to create boost too early or restrict power up top.’

The photos were taken in Spain by a car photographer who saw a group of Japanese engineers crowding round two bikes. Unfortunately he didn’t get any close-ups, but it looks like Yamaha may have used twin radiators, one either side of the tank, to make room for the turbo.

‘That’s certainly a big outlet pipe and it would make you think it’s a turbo’