We keep hoping that Suzuki will reinvigorate the venerable Hayabusa brand, and bring an updated version of its high-speed hyperbike back into the mix. There has been some chatter that such a project is in the works, though it doesn’t seem that 2018 is the magic year for it to appear.
Looking through the current filings with the California Air Resources Board (CARB), we can see that Suzuki Motor Corporation has filed for the 2018 Suzuki GSX1300R – and the quoted emissions (of which, there are quite a lot) remain exactly the same as what’s quoted for the 2017 model.
This suggests that we will see the same 10-year-old second-geneation design being used for an eleventh year in a row, which is a tough pill to swallow, considering the Hayabusa’s iconic position in modern sport bike lore.
We had hoped that when Kawasaki debuted the supercharged Ninja H2 and Ninja H2R motorcycles, that we would once again see the hyperbike wars heating up again, perhaps with a new forced-induction slant.
That may still be the case, but it doesn’t look like 2018 will be the year in which it happens.
Source: CARB
