Chris Gonschor

Driving innovation forward at full throttle.

The fact that a fully carbon frame with matching all-carbon wheels cannot simply be plucked from up your sleeve should be clear to everyone. You at least have to roll up your sleeves and whoever these sleeves belong to not only feels good when going at full throttle, but also feels bad when not enough progress is being made.

Uncompromising, sporty, innovative, impressive.
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Can you describe the HP4 RACE in one sentence?

Absolutely.  
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With a big smile.

I experienced and felt maximum passion. Both for myself as the project manager as well as in the team as a whole. The motorcycle is so excellent in every respect, for instance its weight, performance, innovation and the big carbon issue, that the enthusiasm of everyone involved was at its peak. It was a bit like a racing team. Not just because we had to develop extremely quickly and intensively. This is why passion is the most important thing. When time runs out and results are needed, passion is our only saviour. And this is precisely what makes the HP4 RACE so special. So too does the story of how it was conceived.  
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The HP4 RACE is pure emotion. What emotions did you go through in the development phase?
"
When time becomes finite and results are needed, this is only possible with passion. "

Chris Gonschor

Not pushing a racing motorcycle right up to its limits is virtually impossible. So yes. I believe everyone in the team has reached their limits and had to really push themselves to achieve this. The level we were able to reach as a company in this engineering team cannot be achieved by only giving 97%. 100% is the minimum. This motorcycle gives you the maximum performance technology allows, which is a level of performance that has not yet been seen on this planet. This didn't simply drop out of the sky. This must be developed creatively and continuously optimised . This motorcycle makes a point of testing the limits.
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Did you reach your limits while working on this project?

It was my pleasure to. I think if someone who has been involved with motorsport for decades gets the opportunity to head up a vehicle project like this, tendencies line up with suitability which helps them overcome their own limits. But the joy has an even greater effect, because the team was just so keen. We saw the result grow piece by piece, and this put a smile on every one of our faces each and every day. 

It's true it was a lot of work. A lot of hours went into this project. It's a job that keeps you occupied 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. But the end result is a motorcycle that gives you a moment like that of an actual birth every time it leaves the pits: "Hey, something awesome is happening" Now it is learning to walk and it is walking faster and faster and faster". So put simply: taking pleasure in what we do – this is how we push our limits.    

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Not just by reaching them, but by extending them. How did you overcome your limits?

Experience shapes everyone and makes us all more robust. I believe we all learnt a great deal about ourselves, the technology and the motorcycle. And about a company that is capable of producing such a thing all the time. You get better. You never come out worse off after an experience like this.
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Have you got better at what you do?

Effortless. This is the best thing of all. It feels effortless and fascinating. Very few people on this planet get to ride a motorcycle like this one. So you have a great deal of respect beforehand and then mount the motorcycle and notice that it helps you have fun. It's effortless. It feels so easy to handle. It behaves how you would expect. It reacts to the throttle, steering commands, braking and acceleration as you would want it to. No surprises.

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How does it feel to manage your own project?

There is of course a difference. But the two motorcycles should nevertheless not be compared. Of course, the RR is a pure-blooded sport motorcycle, but still remains a cross between that and a road motorcycle. The HP4 RACE is an out-and-out racing motorcycle and is consequently purely designed for this use right down to its fundamental genetics and main features. And you feel that this is where it belongs and nowhere else. If I were to take this motorcycle out onto the road, I would probably have more challenges to overcome than I would on an RR. The rider ultimately decides where the journey will end up on both machines. But one of them simply does not belong on the road. 
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Is this different from the S 1000 RR? You repeatedly hear that you first have to get the power under control and get the bike under control before you can really start putting it through its paces.

The development time in which we were allowed to create this lightweight model. It felt like a racing season in the superbike world championships. You know exactly when the season starts. But you also know that it will also end this year and that you have to perform during the season. You can't say: "Okay, let's postpone it until next year." But just like at the superbike world championships, we didn't have to think about any test reports or test cycles. It was purely about lap times and the feel-good factor it gave the rider. Being able to implement this measurability as quickly as possible is pure motorsport.
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What is your personal highlight of this motorcycle?

Headway has of course been made in terms of carbon technology. The BMW i3 and the BMW i8 have already made huge leaps on the automotive side of things, and now the HP4 RACE is doing similar things for motorcycles. And we don't do something like this just to show what we can do and then stop. It must be usable for all conceivable components , and so we still have plenty of work to do in this area. We will continue our work and have shown with the HP4 RACE that we were able to solve the problem with the maximum performance and complexity . We can now adapt this to different components and segments . Every component is feasible. If we can make a main frame out of carbon, if we can develop a HP4 RACE, we will also be able to apply this to other types of motorcycles.
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Where will the journey take them next? What is your vision for BMW Motorrad?

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