Odd that the Zilla would do so poorly..my Ported, piped LTR250 will keep up (but not pass) my buddy's 01 banshee? Did they tone down the RZ350 motor in later years?

 

I suggest you dig around and find some of the old Dirt wheels magazines.... There were many shootouts with the Zill against everything...
Nothing was even close.

And to second CTATV, and SAM250s comments... All the manufacturers agreed to 'step down' from making any performance machines for a 10 year period due to all the lawsuits against the companies... That's why the Tecate, 250R, LT250, & LT500 all disappeared right around 1990. Damn Lawyers!!!
Yamaha was the only company that had the Nutz to keep on building their machine... And they've sold the daylights out of them... especially since they really haven't updated the thing since 1987 other than plastic colors.
Hats off to Yamaha for thier luke-warm effort! I might have even purchased one of their machines if they had some form of evolution through the years.

My $.02

 

87?! that motor has been around since the days of my old RZ350! Imagine my embarassment, riding with guys who had 954's, Dukes, Buells, and the like, and I FREAKING KICK START my bike.....then cloud out the Tim Hortons parking lot with smoke! lol! You'd think Yammy woulda put some R&D into a motor that was years old when the dropped it into the "Shee.....

 

The motor itself has been around much much longer than the banshee... I was just commenting on how the banshee hasn't been updated... motor included.
Kinda silly IMHO