In what comes as a big boost to motorsports in India, Royal Enfield has announced its new one-make racing series - Royal Enfield Continental GT Cup. The retro racing series is part of the JK National Racing Championship 2021 and is spread across four rounds and is open to both novice and experienced racers. Unlike normal race bikes that are extreme and are more of a prototype, Royal Enfield’s approach was to make minimalistic and performance-oriented modifications to the road bike.
The RE Continental GT-R650 features a stiffer race-tuned suspension with provision for adjustability on either ends. Talking about performance, the RE race bike features a custom stainless steel exhaust system that has increased the power by 12 percent. The stock Continental GT650 produces 47.65PS and the race bike churns out an additional 5.8PS. What’s even more impressive is that the builders were able to shed a massive 24kg off the standard bike, which with the increase in power should endow the bike with sprighty performance. However, the RE GT-R650 is still hefty by race bike standards at 174kg (without fuel). We got to ride the new retro racer from Royal Enfield at the revised Kari Motor Speedway in Coimbatore and here’s our first impression.
