Manufacturer Muz Class 500 cc | Production 2001 | |
Engine Swissauto two-stroke V4 500 cc | ||
The Pulse GP team was formed by Dave Stewart, ex-team manager of BSL. Stewart had left BSL at the end of 2000 with the intention of setting up his own European-based GP team the following year. The Pulse 500 competed in the 2001 500 cc World Championship.
The team purchased the Muz 500, a two-stroke V4 machine which had competed in the 1999 500 cc Championship. The machines, while fast and showing potential in 1999, had been technically unchanged since then and as such were two years behind the opposition in development. The Pulse team was also severely underfunded and with no major sponsor, so no pre-season testing or development work was carried out on the bikes.
Riders
Having worked with Mark Willis on the BSL, team manager Stewart offered him a seat on the Pulse. The second rider was Jason Vincent who had spent several seasons in the 250 cc class, finishing 11th in that class in the previous year. Both riders faced an uphill struggle with the Pulse however, and were usually relegated to the back of the grid. Development of the bike was practically stagnant: plans were made to replace the original Mikuni carburettors with Keihins, but this never happened.
The bike only achieved one point-scoring race, ridden by Willis at the Italian GP, finishing 13th. Vincent, though consistently a better qualifier, had a best race result of 16th.
Finally, the financial pressure became too great for the team and it was not to see out the full season, withdrawing in July 2001 before the Czech GP. In total the Pulse 500 raced in 9 of the 16 races of the season.