Without a doubt, some pranks are better than others. Some are just totally hilarious, well-executed, or both. And some pranks just won't leave your brain alone, prompting you to think about them long after the moment is over.
For Día de Los Inocentes 2024, Kawasaki España hit the latter note with an absolute vengeance. If you're unfamiliar with this holiday, it's kind of like April Fool's Day in some Spanish-speaking countries, only it's in December instead of April. To be more specific, it took place on Saturday, December 28.
And to celebrate the holiday, someone at Kawasaki España took the time to render this absolute banger of a fictitious single-seat racecar prototype, which it then dubbed the KW-H2R. And honestly, now I really want to see (and more importantly hear) it in real life.
The caption translates to, "For the first and limited time, we present the new single-seater from Kawasaki Racing Team...it'd be amazing to see on the circuits of Monaco, Las Vegas, Monza, or Interlagos. Meanwhile...Happy Day of the Innocents!"
I mean, it's not quite the same thing, but Yamaha is also getting active in Formula E, not just sticking to motorcycle racing. While it's clear that Kawasaki Spain was just playing a joke, the implication is that this would be a car powered by a supercharged H2R engine, right? But when you start to dig into the details, that's where things start to get complicated.
2024 F1 regs state that a qualifying car's minimum weight must be at least 798 kilograms. That's just over 1,759 pounds.
Although a stock Kawasaki H2R engine makes a claimed 306 horsepower at 14,000 rpm (or up to 321.5-ish hp with RAM air) and 121.5 pound-feet of torque at 12,500 rpm, the 2024 Kawasaki Ninja H2R ABS also only weighs a comparatively svelte 216 kg at the curb. That's just over 476 pounds, if you're playing along at home.
Plus, there's the not-so-small matter of modern F1 cars making between 850 and 1,000 horsepower (the latter if they've engaged a brief boost). The power difference, she is significant, Captain.
While the H2R's numbers are impressive for a motorcycle, clearly a lot of work would need to be done for an H2R-derived powerplant to even begin to be competitive in today's F1 field. But still, while it's unclear how KRT and any additional engineers it might hire on to complement an F1 effort (or an F1 partnership, more realistically) might tweak the existing H2R engine, but that can't stop me from dreaming about it.
Thanks, Kawasaki Spain. I can't wait to see how totally bonkers my dreams sound tonight.
