The latest press release issued by Dr. Rob Tuluie regarding his Tul-aris 780:


Tul-aris Almost Finishes 3rd in First Race

After a difficult launch off the starting line, Tul-aris development rider Steve Johnson rode a great race to chase down and pass Wes Pogue’s GSX-R750 for 3rd place on the second-to-last lap of the CRA Unlimited GP race. Steve made up ground consistently during the race and passed Pogue under braking into turn 10. It was great fun to watch Steve wheelie for several gears out of turn 9 consistently and then make the pass for 3rd into the next turn on the brakes. Most unfortunately, on the penultimate lap a malfunctioning gas tank breather caused the engine to stumble due to fuel starvation and Steve pulled in to avoid engine damage.

Never-the-less, to be racing for a podium position with national-level racers this early in the development process of the bike is a very encouraging sign and testament to Steve’s development and riding abilities, the hard work of the Tul-aris crew and the validity of the design of the Tul-aris. We improved our lap times by over 2 seconds from the last time we were at BIR and are now performing typical set-up work, such as finding optimum tire and suspension combinations. This improvement came without the use of our power valve engine, which is still in development, but rather using our existing non-power valve, Hot Seat Performance 780cc engine, which we set up very safely and which ran faultless for the entire weekend, 64 laps (200 miles) total.

If we can maintain this rate of improvement into the next event, great things are in store. Typically, the rate of improvement at the top level of motorcycle racing is on the order of a second per year, if that. Our current rate is 2 seconds per event! Our biggest advantage at BIR came in the infield section of the track, where Steve was able to lap significantly faster than his competition. Our greatest disadvantage was over the bumpy sections of Brainerd ultra-fast turn 1, where the combination of light weight and high torque made for some very lively exits, costing Steve as much as a second a lap. In addition, we couldn’t realize the same top speed advantage we saw earlier in the year at Daytona as our state of engine tuning was very conservative and focused on mid-range by choice. Once our electronic Polaris power valve cylinders will be ready, this situation will certainly change.

Our next tasks are to perform servo-hydraulic lab tests on the MTS motorcycle simulator to help find a better set-up for BIR’s turn 1, using track data we collected this weekend and to fit the electronic power valve mechanism.

The Tul-aris Team is sponsored by Hot Seat Performance, Ohlins, Michelin, Nutec Fuel, Yoyodyne Titanium, Lofgren Racing/Manley Cycle and AP Racing. Special thanks to Hardy Baehni, Dale Athman, Tim Wirtz, Greg Ericksen, Jim Hubert, Bob Harrington, Don Fox, Ivan, Chris Koenig, and Dave Adolfson.