The Landlord

Yamaha Takes Back the Buoy Course with the FZR

Text by Kevin Shaw

Photography by Kevin Shaw and Justin Stannard

It wasn’t long ago that Yamaha began reimagining itself as a family-oriented brand, producing vehicles that mom, dad and the whole clan could enjoy – not just the hardcore rider. The retargeting was super successful and helped to bolster sales of larger, 4-stroke runabouts. Additionally, as EPA and other environmental “watch dog” agencies began cracking down on the noisier and messier 2-strokes, the move to replace nearly all powerplants with cleaner 4-strokes helped to color Yamaha as being very eco-conscious.

As it is with all forms of motorsports, the passing of time unlocked new technologies that helped to break down the misconception of all 4-stroke plants as being slow, sluggish and heavy. The addition of superchargers, turbos, and advanced fuel management systems suddenly propelled these once loathed engines into the popular stratosphere. Two hundred horsepower was not only achievable, but suddenly the standard, with the more aggressive brands pushing well over 50 horses over that.

Yamaha – being a motor company first and a PWC manufacturer second – stepped up to the advanced 4-stroke plate last year, then batted a square and solid hit high into the outfield in 2008. Although only producing a purported 208 peak horsepower in factory-original form, the massive 1.8 liter – branded the Super High Output – brandished 300 cubic centimeters over any of the competition and the most advanced and articulated engine management system to date. Sure the peak numbers were modest, but as the saying goes, there’s no replacement for displacement.

Yet, as the 2008 FX SHO and its Cruiser counterpart quickly became the brand’s twin debutantes, Yamaha’s once most revered craft, the GP1300R, quietly slid into obscurity. Praised among performance enthusiasts and professional competitors, the GPR was irreverently retired with little more than a wimper of a mention from most mainstream media (PWI included). Many speculated that Yamaha would unleash the 1.8 liter and let loose a 250-horsepower SHO/R while others thought that the brand would abandon performance-bred PWC altogether. They would both be wrong.

Hushed whispers began to leak out about a buoy-course annihilator; a runabout designed to devour hairpin turns and sprint from point to point with lightning speed. Frankly, we were aware of a SHO-powered two-seater only a month or two after the ‘08 SHOs hit the showroom floors, so our interest was piqued earlier than most. Obviously, as it is with all craft, development on what would later be known as the FZR (and FZS) began years earlier. Most notably, multi-time World Champion Scott Watkins – working for nearly a decade at Yamaha’s R&D facility – played a key role in the FZ hull…and it shows.

While the deck comes from the same mold as the FX line, the hull is significantly different. Long strakes run the entire length of the hull to help increase stability at speed and allow for better footing in choppy turns. An angled outside chine was shaped into the outer-most lip of the hull to allow aggressive, deep-lean turning, unlike the sharp edge of the FX hull which fights against rolling. The hull is also substantially shorter, which accounts for the exaggerated rear deck overhang. The shortened hull allows the FZ to be sharper, snappier and more nimble in turns.

Sure, the massive 1812cc engine is a direct bolt-in from the FX SHO, but the pump tunnel is totally unique to the new craft. To ensure the FZR and FZS’ traction, the pump inlet was expanded larger than ever before, providing the FZ hull with some of the best hook-up available in a Yamaha. This larger inlet size helps the re-pitched prop to launch the FZ harder and faster, accounting for much of the FZ’s stellar acceleration out of the hole, ideal for turn-to-turn racing.

But the FZR and FZS are not only distinguished from its siblings by hull design. The FZ line features what we at Personal Watercraft Illustrated thought to be the single most attractive analog gauges in the industry. While we feel the gas gauge to be over-simplified (four large black bars, which make fuel level readouts far from precise), the racy red-faced tach and speedo are easy to read, accurate, and resistant to glare while being housed in a handsome faring.

Above: The red faced analog gauges are a favorite among Personal Watercraft Illustrated’s staff. Note the factory speedo tops off at 80 mph! While that might be positive thinking, our GPS did count off an average maximum of 68.1 mph.

Earlier this year, we recommended to another manufacturer that a telescoping handlebar would resolve their latest runabout’s low steering position. Apparently, word travels fast, because the FZR’s three-position rising bars are everything we’d imagined. Set high, the bars allow for comfortable stand-up riding through rougher chop. Set at its lowest, the handlebars are at an ideal height for hard carving, placing the apt rider low in the saddle, dropping their center of gravity and allowing the ski to roll and snap into turns like a sport bike.

Above: Seen side-by-side, the telescoping bars allow riders the choice of aggressive low-center-of-gravity cornering or rough-water riding.

Allowed all the time we wanted, we took our loaned ’09 Metallic Racing Blue FZR to the famed Lake Havasu secret spot, Body Beach, for some buoy racing. Over two days, we slid over undisturbed glass, jostled over stirred-up chop, and pounded our way over criss-crossing wakes, with a GPS unit tracking our speeds as we went.

Shredding the perfectly glassy water apart until the fuel light began to flash, we were mesmerized by the FZR’s aptitude at cornering. Like your well-to-do neighbor taking you for a ride in his newly acquired Porsche GT2, the lightweight two-seater eagerly approached each turn, calmly rolling into the corner, biting, and launching from the curve with barely the effort required from competing vehicles. We played with various trim level combinations and tried differing foot positions before we found what we thought to be the “sweet spot.”

Once dialed, we snapped from one side of the course to another, surprised how well the vehicle managed even with stock sponsons. In stock form, we believe that an apt rider could run circles around some of the more tuned craft. Even more enticing was that nearly all aftermarket innovations that fit the FX Series bolt directly onto the FZ, allowing racers choosing to ride the FZ room for quick upgrades, without the long research and development time.

In the rough, the new FZ hull steps away from its more leisurely bigger sibling, the FX, all the more. First of all, the FZ is light and nimble, not a big, grueling bulldozer like some other three-seaters in the market. This means that it rides differently, requiring a rider to switch up their fundamental riding style. While a Honda F-15X or a Kawasaki 250X can mindlessly barrel through chop like a snowplow, the FZ requires far more rider/PWC interaction. Yet, unlike a comparable craft like the RXP and RXP-X, the FZR feels significantly more controlled. Remember, the FZR is a sport bike, not a Softtail Cruiser.

What does this all mean? In a world of vanilla PWC desperately trying to be everything to everyone, the FZR attempts no such subterfuge. The FZR is a buoy-course performance craft. Not a drag racer. Not an offshore racer. Not a family cruiser. Not a leisurely, bells-and-whistles-loaded Cadillac. It’s a racer, and refuses to apologize for who it is, snearing “If you don’t like it, look someplace else!”

Frankly, this is the sign from heaven that so many have been waiting for from Yamaha. While all of this talk might sound like we’re putting words in Yamaha’s mouth, a quick look at the company’s own website will speak otherwise. Imbued with the GP1300R’s DNA, the FZR is claimed to be the “next generation of the renowned Yamaha GP Series,” and we believe it. Truly, Yamaha has chosen wisely which battle to fight, and is bringing a gun to a knife fight.

Apparel and riding gear supplied by:

Slippery Wetsuits, Troy Lee Designs, and Underground Products.