Yoshimura recreates a 1986 Suzuki GSX-R750 race bike, but it’s street legal

At the recent Tokyo Motorcycle Show, Yoshimura unveiled a heavily modified 1986 Suzuki GSX-R750 to showcase its new Heritage Parts program. The idea was to recreate the race bike that Satoshi Tsujimoto rode at the 1986 Daytona 200, but make it legal for street use. Best of all, Yoshimura plans to sell the bike to the public.

Some say that the Suzuki GSX-R750 kicked off the sportbike wars when it debuted in Japan in 1985 (1986 in the US). Designed for lightness above all else, it was built around an aluminum frame, a rarity at the time. The engine was oil cooled so that it didn’t need all the extra equipment associated with water cooling, and owners could easily remove components which were required for the road but not for the track, such as the headlight assembly.

The GSX-R750 won the All-Japan Road Race Championship TT-F1 class for three consecutive years from 1985-87, and the 1989 AMA Superbike Championship on this side of the Pacific. To commemorate its success, Suzuki released in Japan a limited edition in 1986, the GSX-R750R. Like the race bikes it had a single seat and a dry clutch and was the first Japanese motorcycle to cost over ¥1 million.

The modern day recreation is called the Yoshimura GSX-R750 604, named after the racing number of rider Satoshi Tsujimoto. There’s no Suzuki in the name because Yoshimura’s competition machines are so modified and the performance so vastly different from the stock Suzuki. They started with a used 1986 Suzuki GSX-R750 and upgraded its suspension, brakes, engine peripherals, gauges, handlebar set, and much more.

The engine head was ported and the carburetors replaced with Yoshimura Mikuni TMR MJN32 units. The original GSX-R750 that competed in the Daytona 200 showcased Yoshimura’s Duplex Cyclone exhaust design for the first time in the US. This homage uses titanium pipes, but keeps the trick dual cylindrical sub-chambers that connect neighboring pipes to modulate the exhaust pulses and increase torque.

Naturally, the cowl and fairings are painted to match the No.604 race bike. The front fender has been replaced with a slimmer one and the turn signals replaced by flush-mounted blinkers for improved aerodynamics. It’s as close as one can get to Yoshimura’s 1986 race bike but still be street legal.

While there is only one right now, Yoshimura says it will monitor demand and, depending on the availability of good-quality used GSX-R750s, possibly build more. The GSX-R750 604 will be auctioned with a starting price of ¥6,040,000 (approximately $41,900 USD) this June.

Images courtesy of Yoshimura.