“Put up or shut up” has never been more applicable. The wave of hatred for terminating the FZ hull was to be expected, but the backlash that Yamaha felt for resurrecting the “GP” title and christening it upon a heavily-optioned, lightened and SVHO-powered VXR sent loyalists into a tizzy. “It’ll never handle like the FZ,” “It’ll never be as fast,” “It’ll never stay hooked” and similar complaints washed over the message boards and social media. The hate was strong against the GP1800.
One who knew from the get-go that the GP1800 was a “lock” was Dean Charrier, the might and mind behind Dean’s Team. Charrier was brought in early on the GP project, with Yamaha opening up their research and development to the famed tuner. Upon its release, it took only a few months for Dean’s Team to release their GP1800RS (Race Spec) limited edition WaveRunner. The RS has been clocked turning in consistent speeds of 83 mph or more, and consists of a billet aluminum RIVA Racing steering system, rebranded WORX sponsons, a Dean’s Team Performance ECU Reflash, Dean’s Team repitched Solas prop, a RIVA Racing Power Filter Kit, and a RIVA Water Strainer (which are all included in the off-the-shelf Dean’s Team SVHO Starter Kit).
While that machine won’t pass stringent AquaX standards, you will be able to charge the starting line at most IJSBA Stock class events. Yet, Dean hasn’t stopped there. With a big season laid out before him, Charrier has been hard at work fine tuning his Limited class-edition GP. “It was 87-degrees and 71-percent humidity when [we] were testing,” Dean wrote. The images of a 90-flat and a 91.4mph run captured on a Garmin Vivoactive GPS watch proved the combination was working. Although Dean was a little cagey on the full list of mods, he did share some tidbits: “Repitch [RIVA] F2 19lb. [wheel] and a 0-degree nozzle.” The full reveal will come shortly, but until then know that all that hate only fuels Dean to go faster.
