The first Diesel Superbike: the Star Twin ThunderStar 1200 TDI

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“And now for the number one question we are always asked”, he says smiling, “the diesel technology we used comes from a three cylinder diesel engine from the VW Lupo.”

“The bike uses a turbo charged, direct injection engine, with intercooler. It produces at the moment approximately 70 bhp and 160 Nm (118 ft pound) of torque. We will increase the power and torque later this year to more than 100 bhp and between 200 to 250 Nm of torque. We decided to slowly increase the power output of the machine, so we can easily see what the effects are and because it’s an enormous amount of torque on the drive train of the machine. It has five speed gearbox and a dry slipper clutch.”

Now 200 Nm of torque is indeed an outrageous amount of torque for a motorcycle to produce. If it produces more than 200, which seems likely, it will out-torque the fattest bottom-end in two-wheeled history – cos that’s what Triumph’s Rocket III produces.

The rest of the Star Twin ThunderStar 1200 diesel motorcycle is top class but conventional.

“A lot of the parts are made in Holland,” says Bernart.

“We used a Grand Prix front fork and a mono shock from White Power. Both very light and very good. The inner front fork tubes are made of aluminium for example.

“The front brakes are from the English PFM performance brakes, which gave us a suitable (and very light) brake disks and manufactured a new radial mounted brake caliper suitable for the front fork. The carbon wheels are from Blackstone Technology (BST).

How does the machine ride and what does it sounds like?

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