The Petronas FP1 is a

liquid cooled Liquid cooling refers to cooling by means of the convection or circulation of a liquid. Examples of liquid cooling technologies include: * Cooling by convection or circulation of coolant, including water cooling * Liquid cooling and ventilatio ...

inline three-cylinder

homologation Homologation (Greek ''homologeo'', ὁμολογέω, "to agree") is the granting of approval by an official authority. This may be a court of law, a government department, or an academic or professional body, any of which would normally work fr ...

special

sport bike A sport bike (sports motorcycle, or sports bike) is a motorcycle designed and optimized for speed, acceleration, braking, and cornering on asphalt concrete race tracks and roads. They are mainly designed for performance at the expense of comfor ...

that was produced in 2003 by

Petronas Petroliam Nasional Berhad (National Petroleum Limited), commonly known as Petronas, is a Malaysian oil and gas company. Established in 1974 and wholly owned by the Government of Malaysia, the corporation is vested with all oil and gas reso ...

. Originally developed jointly by Petronas and

Sauber Petronas Engineering Sauber Petronas Engineering AG (SPE) was a company owned jointly by the Swiss racing car manufacturer Sauber (60%) and the Malaysian oil company Petronas (40%). It was founded in 1996 for the purpose of supplying engines to the Sauber Formula On ...

as the Petronas GP1 989cc

prototype A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototyp ...

to compete in

MotoGP Grand Prix motorcycle racing is the premier class of motorcycle road racing events held on road circuits sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM). Independent motorcycle racing events have been held since the start ...

, Petronas decided to race the motorcycle in the

Superbike World Championship Superbike World Championship (also known as WorldSBK, SBK, World Superbike, WSB, or WSBK) is a silhouette-class road racing series based on heavily modified production motorcycles, also known as superbike racing. The championship was founded i ...

instead. To meet the requirements for the motorcycle's entry into the championship, the engine was reduced to and Petronas had to produce 150 road version motorcycles for

FIM FIM may refer to: Organizations and companies * Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme, the International Motorcycling Federation * Flint Institute of Music, in Michigan, United States * Fox Interactive Media, now News Corp. Digital Media * ...

. The first 75 units of Petronas FP1s were built in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

by January 30 2003, passing homologation inspection to enable the bike to contest in . The final 75 units were assembled in

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

by the country's motorcycle manufacturer,

Modenas ''Syarikat Motosikal dan Enjin Nasional Sdn. Bhd'' (National Motorcycle and Engine Company), or known as Modenas for short is a Malaysian national motorcycle company producing various small motorcycle models below 400cc targeted for local market ...

by July 2003. Out of the 150 units produced only 100 were made available to the public available in Panache Green, Exotic Black and Misty Grey. The other 50 units were kept to be used for racing. Petronas joined forces with four-time Superbike World champion

Carl Fogarty Carl George Fogarty, (born 1 July 1965), often known as Foggy, is an English former motorcycle racer and one of the most successful World Superbike racers of all time. He also holds the second highest number of race wins at 59. He is the son ...

to form a racing team — ''Foggy Petronas Racing'', with riders

Troy Corser Troy Gordon Corser (born 27 November 1971) is an Australian former professional motorcycle road racer. He competed in the Superbike World Championship from 1992 to 2011 except for the 1997 season when he competed in Grand Prix motorcycle raci ...

and

James Haydon James Richard Barnaby Haydon (born 2 November 1973 in Amersham, Buckinghamshire), is a British former motorcycle racer. He raced in 250cc and 500cc Grand Prix, MotoGP, British Superbike and the World Superbike Championship. He retired in 2008 ...

— to participate in the Superbike World Championship. From the FIM changed the rules to allow 1000 cc machines (either twins, triples or four-cylinder) to race. The FP1 was developed under the previous regulations (that limited the engine displacement for 3-cylinder to 900cc), as a result the motorcycle was at a disadvantage from the rest of the field. With the Japanese manufacturers limiting their involvement for 2003 and , the FP1 was able to have some good results, finishing on the podium twice in 2004. With Japanese motorcycles returning in the FP1 fell behind and by it was struggling to finish in the points. Petronas terminated the superbike project at the end of 2006. In 2010,

Motor Cycle News ''MCN'' or ''Motor Cycle News'' is a UK weekly Motorcycle, motorcycling newspaper published by Bauer Verlagsgruppe, Bauer Consumer Media, based in Peterborough, United Kingdom. It claims to be "the world’s biggest weekly motorcycle newspape ...

discovered 60 brand new FP1's stored in

Basildon Basildon ( ) is the largest town in the borough of Basildon, within the county of Essex, England. It has a population of 107,123. In 1931 the parish had a population of 1159. It lies east of Central London, south of the city of Chelmsford and ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

. Manufactured for Petronas by MSX International for homologation purposes, they were part of the original batch of 75, but which were never shipped to Malaysia. The bikes are presently held in the former MSX premises by new company owner Arrk R&D, who are subject to a confidentiality agreement to Petronas.

References

{{reflist Petronas Motorcycles by brand Motorcycles of Malaysia