Paul Lefèvre – a French film actor and director, and a longtime motorcycle competitor – had a dream: to follow in the wheel tracks of legendary Bonneville speed record holder Burt Munro. He realised that dream… thanks to Kawasaki!

Paul’s journey to the annual SpeedWeek on Bonneville salt flats began in his homeland of France with a plea via  David Dumain (Editor of the famous French motorcycle title Moto Revue) to Kawasaki Motors France.

In essence it was: “Can Paul borrow a standard Ninja ZX-4RR, ride it to SpeedWeek in Utah, set a time and then ride the bike back to its starting point in California?”

Like a well-oiled machine, wheels were put in motion and a frankly surprised Lefèvre was informed only a few days later that American Kawasaki Motors (AKM) had a machine ready for him at their Foothill Ranch offices in the south of Los Angeles.

With Dumain as his “wingman” - and to document the adventure - Lefèvre flew to L,A., collected a standard Ninja ZX-4RR and made ready to ride to the famous salt flats in Utah, a mere 1,130 Km journey!

Of course, there were stops along the way – and for Lefèvre these formed part of an overall homage to the core essence of SpeedWeek, where many private individuals test their ingenuity, engineering expertise … and bravery across a measured (and timed) distance on the rock hard and totally flat surface of the sunbaked salt flats.

The long journey (or pilgrimage) to Utah included parking his Kawasaki in front of the Bagdad Café, made famous for the film of the same name; riding through Flagstaff like the heroes of Easy Rider; and even sleeping in the Moab motel where John Wayne stayed while filming his westerns.

Naturally, as a SpeedWeek “virgin” Lefèvre had some fine-tuning to do when he arrived – fitting things such as a compulsory steering damper (borrowed from a generous fellow competitor) and a lanyard kill switch to cut the engine if rider and machine became separated. Along with other formalities – and the generous cooperation of the organisers – Lefèvre was finally ready to attack the chosen “500 production class” and attempt record a speed.

Compared to the vast majority of his two-wheeled colleagues during SpeedWeek, Paul Lefèvre’s machine was palpably “stock” and street legal – a machine used on any other day as a Press loan machine by AKM. But Lefèvre was pragmatic: thoughts of actually attaining a record for a class that tops out at 500cc on a totally stock 399cc machine were not at the forefront of his mind. His primary goal was simply to be part of an iconic event and to emulate the attitude and approach of Burt Munro, the speed-obsessed New Zealander whose history on the salt flats is the stuff of legend.      

Ultimately, the time arrived to settle on the start line, ready to break the first of the timing beams and record a time. Through the timing part of the course the diminutive Ninja achieved a creditable 116.923mph (188.169 km/h) against a strong headwind. The conditions did not improve for his second run whereby he posted a similar speed.

But that was not the essence of the adventure. Lefèvre was on a pilgrimage, a bucket-list journey not simply to visit a series of evocative and emotional cultural locations but to experience the atmosphere and history of the legend that is SpeedWeek.

The Ninja “pocket rocket” did not miss a beat, and willingly brought Lefèvre over 1,130km back to AKM ready to be prepared for its next media test.

On his helmet – specially painted for the adventure – Lefèvre, who has vowed to return to SpeedWeek for another attempt, made sure he had a quote from Burt Munro: “You live more in five minutes on a bike like this going flat out than some people live in a lifetime.”