The N100 Plan called for an air-cooled standard motorcycle with an engine capacity of 500 cubic centimeters.
The performance minimum was to make a 13-second standing start 1/4 mile run (0–400 meters).
(1) Use an existing, tried and true Kawasaki A7 350 "Avenger", a 350 cc parallel twin-cylinder, rotary-disc engine, bored out to 500 cc or (2) develop an entirely new engineering layout, building an inline 3-cylinder, or create a new and groundbreaking "L-triple" design.
The Kawasaki technical team at the end decided on a conventional piston inlet port engine, with three inline cylinders.
A new engine was installed at Las Vegas and the bike was run to Yuma, Arizona under normal road conditions with a return trip to Los Angeles.