Fleetfooted, liquid-cooled ace
In Europe, the Dragster comes with a varied engine choice of 50cc, 125cc or searing 180cc hearts. Our test scooter ran with the 125cc liquid-cooled, two-stroke motor. Electric-starter operated, the Dragster idles with a mellow two-stroke clatter. The 123.5cc motor has an automatic choke for convenient starting. Its engine is variator-driven and breathes through a 12mm Dellorto carburettor.
A catalytic converter is embedded within the silencer, but does little to help the common two-stroke malady of sooty combustion surplus spewing into the atmosphere. There's no point in digging too deep into this Dragster's engine details, for Kinetic's final configuration has yet to be decided. Common sense points to the production engine being four-stroke, emission-friendly, and slightly frugal. But the devil in us would plump for an out-and-out power-oriented motor better suited to this little monster.
Moving onto Performance, get ready to have your socks blown off. The Dragster is the fastest scooter we have ridden. Period. It flexes its 14.47 peak bhp to scamper from rest with shocking force, unlike a gearless scooter.
And if initial go feels abrupt, then brace yourself, for with rising revs, midrange thrust delights, with the periphery blurring still quicker and 60kph going by in a scant 6.17seconds — as quick if not quicker than the majority of Indian motorcycles. And if that isn't enough, this untiring motor continues to pull into the upper reaches of its rev band to a respectable top whack of 106kph. The Dragster surprised us for reading out dead-accurate speedometer readings, with our test equipment unable to find even a 1kph error!
So there you have it in black and white -- the Dragster is a scooter with genuinely sporty capabilities. One which has ample go to match the show.