The FX Project Part 1

Matsushima Performance and Tuning
When Danny Eslick finished fourth in this year's Daytona 200, we knew we had made a wise decision to ship our engine off to Grant Matsushima's shop. In addition to performance engine work for street riders and racers, Matsushima runs MPT Racing, a Suzuki-supported Formula Xtreme and Supersport team with riders Eslick and Jeremiah Johnson.

Matsushima has a colorful past with a who's who of racers and teams. In 1998 he worked with Carry Andrew and Hypercycle on Nicky Hayden's Supersport bikes, and following that he went to Yoshimura, wrenching for Jason Pridmore for two years. In '01 Matsushima was Roger Lee Hayden's lead mechanic and built Supersport engines for the Bruce Transportation Group; the next year he worked with Ben Spies and Pridmore again on the Attack Performance team. A desire to provide privateers with better equipment led Matsushima to start his own business.

"I wanted to take all the experience I had and offer it to the public, because everybody builds stuff for the public, but they don't build everything they've got for the public. My motto for the longest time was, `Factory performance for the privateer'. I hooked up with Opie Caylor and we did the Team EMGO Taiwan thing in '03. We did the defunct Empire Racing last year. After that, after having to step into more of a crew chief-type role last year, I decided this year I wanted to do something on my own and actually have my own program. I approached Suzuki with it, and at first they seemed a little bit tentative because I don't have huge financial backing--I'm just an independent shop. Now I'm here and trying to make what I can out of what I've got." The association is off to a good start, as in addition to his fourth-place finish at Daytona, Eslick sits third in points (after three rounds) behind the factory Honda pairing of Jake Zemke and Miguel DuHamel.

"I hear rumors that [the Hondas] make in the 140 [horsepower] range," Matsushima says of the shrieking CBR600RRs of Zemke and DuHamel. "The best the Suzukis have ever seen--that I've heard from other people--is mid-30s. When you guys first approached me about this it was for more of a reliable, basic-spec motor. In hindsight, I probably should have built something that was a little less reliable and more in the way of FX. There's a bit of work that needs to be done; it's probably 50 percent of a full FX motor."

So what would it take to build our engine into a 130-odd horsepower weapon? Between $6000 and $8000 will get you the full Formula Xtreme build and close to what is in the team's bikes. "My full FX spec is hours upon hours of timing, compression ratio...I spend a lot of time even to this day working on the ideal spec." That specification includes removing the starter and its related gears, a porting job with major amounts of metal removal, titanium retainers, Carillo connecting rods, and even specially machined stock pistons, among other, unrevealed mods. "You're more worried about getting the thing to rev to 17,000 rpm," Matsushima says. Another trick he employs is his "water back-pumping kit," which redirects coolant flow into the head and out the cylinder block rather than the other way around. "I think it's what makes a lot of the difference between my motors and some other motors." True to his word, the kit is available to the public.

Bazzaz Performance Design
Ammar Bazzaz is no stranger to working with fast and good-handling Suzuki GSX-Rs. Before he opened BPD, he helped Mat Mladin to three of his AMA Superbike championships. Bazzaz rose to prominence as an expert on suspension and chassis setup when he designed a rear linkage for the Yoshimura GSX-R750 superbikes; a variation of that linkage is one of the products he now sells as part of BPD. Filling out the line of suspension parts he offers for sale are hlins and K-Tech components. While hlins is a familiar brand to sportbike riders, K-Tech may not be. Chief among the K-Tech parts BPD sells and services are complete 25mm cartridge internal kits and revalve kits for existing 20mm cartridges (which covers most sportbikes).

The British company also manufactures replacement compression and rebound damping adjusters. "90 percent of the K-tech piston kits come with a rebound piston holder, and that's what differentiates it from the other aftermarket products out there," Bazzaz points out." With that different rebound piston holder, there's also a different needle set that allows you more adjustment on the rebound circuit. But on the `04/'05 GSX-R600s, they have not developed that yet. Your kit uses the stock rebound piston kit."

Bazzaz is also well respected as a data acquisition and fuel management specialist, and has designed and developed his own replacement ECU for big-bore Suzukis that has an additional data-logging feature. He can often be seen at the races with his laptop connected to the innards of one factory bike or another, and this year, in addition to running BPD, Bazzaz has signed on to Jordan Motorsports as crew chief for the team's Superbike program.