By Hayabusa Rush from A to - er - A

Words by Dean Heatley, pictures by Stuart Mather and David Betts

Tuesday afternoon was dry and bright. Gary took me for a blat in the Busa...

He fires it up and all the hairs on your neck bristle - it's got the quiet SVA pipe on it.

As it warms up you just know something quite extraordinary is sitting in front of you. The racing snarl of a four cylinder bike engine straining at the leash is special.

Hustling it out of the garage round for gas requires LOTS of tenacious blipping of the throttle. This man has what it takes to qualify for Hooligan status.

Once on the main road we get a taster of first gear madness. The rear squirms into place on the tarmac. Mere fractions of a second pass before the shrill alien creature wastegate tries to get out of the side panel. And then we're slowing for the roundabout.

Just after this all hell breaks loose. Straightening out the curve, the Holeshot Turbo gets the gun. The whole world begins to shake. Violent invisible arms clobber you back into the seat, your eyes squint as the wind hammers at you, everything is shaking, shaking. 10 grand and 110mph are on the flickering instruments, Gary's blurry left hand flicks through a couple of gears as the wastegate chunters and the world is filled with the sound of speed.

Over the nose, the Rush's square headlights hunt down the next obstacle. A roundabout. Stopping is almost as fearsome as going!

We're back down in sensible land. 30 past the schoolkids all pointing and lairing at us. Another roundabout, warm the tyres first? Nah! Flung into a massive leering oversteer slide all the way round, the front end just hangs on. You can tell DJ's pay for the tyres!

Out onto the country lanes and it's all a different story. This thing sticks like you would not believe. No front end slidey-slides, just sticky grip.

But I'll leave the rest of our little trip to your imaginations...

'Coz for me those first seconds of sheer unadulterated hooliganism will live for a long time. The Busa is special. Scary special. And that's the whole point of these cars. Pure joy.

The want-one feeling is back with a vengeance!