IT SEEMS THAT ERIK Buell's dream is about to come true. The company that bears his name is going big-time racing again.

Again? Yep, while it is more famous today for Ulysses and Lightning and CityX streetbikes, the very first Buell was a racebike, a rootin'-tootin' two-stroke, square-Four formula bike at that! The year was 1983, and the RW750 came along just in time for the AMA to eliminate the class and instead concentrate on production racing.

Jump ahead 23 years and Buell is about to hit the track with a production racer of its own, the XBRR, legal for competition in the AMA's Formula Xtreme class, stomping grounds of the Japanese factories' hot-shot 600cc Supersports. Erik even wants others to join in the fun and is making 50 bikes available worldwide from an initial production run, priced at $30,995. This is no warmed-up streeter, either. With a beefed-up bottom end and track-mapped fuel-injection fed by ram-air, the RR's 1339ec air-cooled V-Twin works through a 4.08-inch bore and 3.1-inch stroke to deliver a claimed 150 hp at the crank, accompanied by a stout 100 foot-pounds of torque at 6500 rpm. Top-speed target is 170mph.
 
There's full carbon-fiber bodywork, developed in the Texas A&M wind tunnel, Ohlins suspension at both ends, a Nissin eight-piston front brake caliper, cast-mag wheels...and a little bit of Cycle World in every XBRR.

That's right, longtime CW Contributing Editor (and MIT grad) Steve Anderson was hired away by Buell to serve as platform leader on the racebike project.

"We're committed to racing as a way of learning and improving Buell street-bikes," says Anderson. "At the same lime, we expect to be in the hunt with the XBRR."

The plan is to be on the starting grid at the Daytona 200 this March.