history
Petronas, also known as Petroliam Nasional Berhad, is actually a Malaysian oil company which was often involved in the car and motorcycle market as well as in racing and other sport competitions. The company was founded on August 17, 1974, and is entirely owned by the local government.
Describing Petronas' involvement into the motorcycle industry, the Malaysian company has only produced a single bike, the FP1, which was released in 2003, being a project developed by both Petronas and Sauber Petronas Engineering. The motorcycle was initially known as GP1 and was supposed to compete in MotoGP but Petronas decided to rename it and prepare it for the Superbike World Championship.
Although it was meant to take part into this competition, Petronas has produced 150 units of the bike, no less than 100 motorcycles being released on the market and made available to the consumers. These bikes were available in multiple colors, including Exotic Black and Mistry grey.
The Petronas Superbike history continued with a partnership between the Malaysian company and Carl Fogarty, the well-known Superbike world champion.
Petronas didn't manage to record too many important results in the championship, mostly due to the dominance of the Japanese companies that often won the leading positions in the majority of races. In 2006, Petronas decided to stop involving in Superbike so the FP1 motorcycle wasn't improved anymore.
Getting back to this motorcycle, it came with a 899cc engine equipped with a liquid cooling system and 3 cylinders in line, 4 valves per cylinder. This engine was able to produce no less than 127 horsepower at 10000 rpm and a torque of 92Nm at 9700 rpm. Moreover, the bike had a 6 speed gearbox, Ohlins upside-down fork front suspension and monoshock low linkage rear suspension.
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