Featured In the February 2024 issue of Roadracing World
During the no-holds-barred era of Grand Prix racing in the 1960s, Honda went the air-cooled four-stroke route with more cylinders, more rpm and more gears, while Suzuki and Yamaha pushed the water-cooled two-stroke envelope with multi-cylinders, disc (rotary) valves, and yet more gears. The madness had to end, and it did with rule changes limiting the number of cylinders and gears depending on class capacities.
The rules changes gave birth to Yamaha’s potent over-the-counter 250cc and 350cc racebikes and Suzuki’s XRl4 (the factory version of the RG500) that debuted in 1974 and was a Square-4 water-cooled two-stroke with disc (rotary) valves. Development turned the early versions into a racebike good enough to win the 1976 and 1977 500cc World Championships with Barry Sheene aboard. Then Yamaha won in 1978-1979-1980 with Kenny Roberts on Inline-four-cylinder, piston-port OW factory machines. Suzuki’s Square-4, disc-valve factory XR won again in 1981 and 1982. But by then it was becoming obvious that to compete against the latest reed-valve, piston-port V-4 Hondas and Yamahas, Suzuki needed a new engine.
In 1986 Suzuki debuted the XR70/7l GP machine with reed valves and twin crankshafts in a 55-degree V-4 configuration. The riders were Pierfrancesco Chili, who finished 10th, tied in points with Niall Mackenzie and part-timer Kevin Schwantz in 22nd. It was a steep learning curve for the team and engineers in Japan!
“Historic Racebike Illustrations: 1993 Suzuki RGV XR79,” by Mick Ofield
It was a long road back to the top for Suzuki, but it all paid off when Revvin’ Kevin Schwantz took the 500cc Grand Prix World Championship again in 1993. Read the details of their journey back to the top in the latest issue of Roadracing World!
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