Suzuki RZ63 Replica Racing Motorcycle
Frame no. to be advised
Engine no. to be advised

• Built circa 2010-2012
• Suzuki TR500 frame
• Suzuki RG400 Gamma engine

Suzuki first emerged onto motorcycle sport's international stage in 1960 when the Japanese manufacturer made its debut at the Isle of Man TT in the Ultra Lightweight race with a trio of 125cc two-stroke twins entered under its 'Colleda' brand name. Success proved elusive, but when East German rider/engineer Ernst Degner defected to the West in 1961, bringing with him to Suzuki knowledge of MZ's advanced two-stroke technology, the company's racing fortunes were turned around. In 1962 Suzuki won the inaugural 50cc World Championship, Degner winning four of the races. The following year New Zealander Hugh Anderson took both the 50cc and 125cc world titles for Suzuki, and the stage looked set for even greater achievements.

In 1963 Suzuki unveiled one of the most sensational racing motorcycles the world had ever seen: the RZ63. A 250cc 'square four' featuring disc valve induction, the RZ63 engine was in effect two of the RT63 125cc twins coupled together on a common crankcase and equipped with water cooling. With 52bhp on tap, it was as powerful as a British 500cc four-stroke single and had a top speed of around 140mph. Following an inauspicious debut at the season-ending Japanese GP in 1963, the Suzuki four was extensively redesigned for 1964, it first full Grand Prix season, emerging as the RZ64. It would be revised once more, as the RZ65, for 1965, its final year. For all its promise, Suzuki's amazing 250cc four achieved little over the course of its short life; dogged by unreliability and with a tendency to seize at high speed without warning, it is best know today by its 'Whispering Death' sobriquet, coined by Australian works rider Jack Ahearn, who was lucky to walk away from one such incident at the Isle of Man TT.

We are advised that this RZ63 replica has been created using a genuine Suzuki factory TR front end, a TR500 frame, and a dry clutch version of the Suzuki RG400 roadster engine which, like its racing progenitor, is a water-cooled square four. Invoices on file indicate that it was built between circa 2010 and 2012, and the accompanying folder also contains a quantity of photographs and photocopied literature.

Hardly any of Suzuki's works bikes from the 1960s survive - it was company policy to destroy them at the season's end - and thus replicas such as this are the only means of experiencing these fabulously ambitious multi-cylinder machines from Grand Prix racing's 'Golden Era'.