|
The machine offered here for sale was raced by Barry Sheene at the August bank holiday meeting at Oulton Park 1979 .
UK importer heron Suzuki was interested in promoting production -based racing and asked Paul Dunstall to enter a Yoshimura prepared factory GS1000s Suzuki in TT Formula One events in 1979. Barry Sheen was the Texaco -sponsored Heron Suzuki teams number one rider in Grand Prix and his dislike of racing heavyweight four strokes was well known , once referring to them as 'muck spreaders' Nevertheless Barry acquitted himself with distinction in his one off ride at Oulton Park, Finishing a close 2nd to Honda mounted Ron Haslam . Indeed the Suzuki star might have one had he not been balked by a back marker on the final lap For its first foray into formula 1 racing Suzuki adopted a relatively cautious approach to tuning the GS 1000 s roadster. The machine was sent from Japan to Pops Yoshimura in California where the engine received special cams , larger inlet and exhaust valves , High compression slipper Pistons, self generating ignition, close ratio gears and a stronger clutch basket , The crankshaft conrods and bottom end being left in stock . Retaining the standard 28 mm carburettors a Formula One requirement. The 1000cc tuned GS produced around 114 bhp with a wide spread of usable power . As well as other additions to inside the engine which were a Kawasaki KZ 1000 idler wheel fitted into the cylinder head below the intake cam and an inverted stock GS 750 idler roller was installed into the GS 1000 cylinder head to help keep the cam chain under control when revs were 10,000 RPM plus confirming this is an original yoshimura race tuned F1 engine Changes to the chassis included a shorter Peckett and mcNabb swinging arm and RG 500 fork yokes . Period photographs of the Sheene Suzuki racing at Oulton Park show it equipped with only a cockpit fairing , whereas photographs taken later in the season show the type of full fairing that it also wore . It can also be seen that this machine was equipped with a right foot gearchange as were many of Barry Sheene's bikes The Dunstall Suzuki teams regular riders were Steve machin and Bob Smith but Sheene's 2nd place at Oulton park would be its best result in 1979 . The Ex-Sheene Suzuki was later sold by Tony Robinson ( Who was involved in the running of the Suzuki Dunstall team ) to Martin Jones of Muswell Hill London then sold it to Mike Ryan of Cheltenham in April 1998 then purchased by Richard Ford in June 1999 , since 2002 the Suzuki has been on display in the Lake land motor museum . This Suzuki has not been run since being loaned to the museum BUT HAS just recently been recommissioned by Dyna tech and the present owner only requiring new tyres to be able to race this one off classic machine . Believed the only Japanese four -stroke ever raced by the late ex-world champion (he did race a seeley norton in 1970 retiring with gearbox problems ) This is very rare x factory production racer is now offered with various bills of sale and period press cuttings tracing its history back to Tony Robinson with a bill of sale |