Foggy
Petronas FP-1
The
Petronas FP1, or as it was also known the Foggy Petronas FP1, was a
homologation sports bike built in 2003.
150
road going examples were built to comply with the Superbike World Championship
rules. 75 of the bikes were built in the UK, while the other 75 were built in
Malaysia.
Unfortunatley
for Foggy Petronas Racing, the team behind the bike, they had developed it to
comply with 2002 Superbike World Championship rules which limited engine
displacement to 900cc. In 2003 however this was raised to 1,000 cc. Therefore
the bike was slightly less powerful than it could have been.
Despite
this, the racing version managed a number of wins in the 2003 and 2004 seasons.
By 2006 however it was outclassed and retired.
Petronas
had hoped to turn the FP1 into a business success, manufacturing the bikes in
Malaysia and selling them worldwide. Unfortunatley this didn't pan out, and
instead the company lost many millions on the project before abandoning it
entirely.
Interestingly,
in 2010 a brand-new batch of 60 unregistered Petronas FP1 motorcycles were
found in a wharehouse in Essex, UK. The bikes are still held there under a
confidentiallity agreement with Petronas in Malaysia. The estimated value of
the collection is roughly US$ 3 million.