Ebr 1190 Typhon
EBR 1190 TYPHON
German-built Buell gets naked
After the Pegasus race team and rider Harald Kitsch won the 2010 German Sound of Thunder Championship with their brand-new Erik Buell Racing 1190 RR-B, boredom set in, and right behind it the idea to build the ultimate streetfighter. Together with Gruner Engineering, an automotive design house right down the street in Wolfsburg, Germany, the team got to work shedding parts from the 185-horsepower EBR Superbike.
With that much power, throwing bodywork to the wind thoughtlessly could possibly lead to unhappy results. The concept bike uses control blades and air splitters around its fork and frame to smooth airflow at speeds up to and maybe beyond 150 mph, while the rider gets nothing more than an old Buell Sistyle flyscreen for protection. “To combine a cool, minimized look with really good aerodynamics is a real challenge, especially with something as powerful as the EBR Superbike,” said Grüner Engineering project manager Heiko Jessat. Erik Buell Racing sent CAD models
to use in the design process; and now, with its EBR exhaust system, adjustable clip-ons, digital cockpit and other parts, the concept bike looks almost ready to hit the road. Production plans are murky at best, but Pegasus principal Thomas Wanner says he is very satisfied with the result. “We now consider what spinoffs we gain from the Typhon study; there will be coming first some parts to rebuild f t T the Buell XB models and / / 1125R/CR, but further ■ thinking is explicitly not excluded.”
Pegasus is the only team outside the U.S. to race the Erik Buell Racing 1190 RR-B Superbikes, and in 2011, Kitsch will again compete in the Art Motor SBK series, while teammate Robin Taborsky will also compete in a revitalized B.E.A.R.S. (BritishEuropean-American-Race-Series).
Wow! To our eyeballs, the Typhon— with its twin headlights and sit-up ergos—looks just like what the XB Lightning might have evolved into if Harley hadn’t usurped the liquid-cooled V-Twin for use in the V-Rod all those many years ago. Interesting... John Burns
