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Suzuki RG 500

Together with rivals Honda and Yamaha, Suzuki had pulled out of Grand Prix racing at the end of the 1967 season and would not return for another six years. When they did, it was with a machine powered by a water-cooled version of the T500 roadster’s twin-cylinder two-stroke engine. Ridden by Jack Findlay, the TR500 achieved some creditable results in a season that saw victory in the 500cc World Championship go to MV-Agusta rider Phil Read. Findlay finished the year in 5th place. Clearly, something faster would be required to beat the highly developed MV and Yamaha?s new TZ500. Suzuki already had plenty of experience of square four engines in the form of the defunct RZ63 250, and this compact layout was revived for its new premier-class racer – the RG500, coded XR14. Like its quarter-litre predecessor, the RG500 employed disc valve induction and separate geared-together crankshafts driving a six-speed transmission via an intermediate gear. Over-square bore/stroke dimensions of 56×50.5mm were used and a maximum output of 90bhp at 10,500rpm claimed. This state-of-the-art power unit was housed in a conventional tubular-steel duplex-loop frame.

Early in 1974, Britain’s rising star Barry Sheene, winner of the 1973 FIM Formula 750 Championship on a Suzuki TR750, was asked to visit the Hamamatsu factory, where he proceeded to clip 1.5 seconds off the test track record on the new 500 four, following up with second place in the season-opening French Grand Prix behind Read’s MV. Inevitably though, there were teething problems, chiefly associated with engine seizures and wayward high-speed handling. Sheene ended the season sixth in the World Championship.

Prior to the start of the 1975 season, Suzuki (GB) Ltd was taken over by the Heron Corporation and the race team greatly expanded to include not only Barry Sheene but also John Newbold, Percy Tait, John Williams and Stan Woods. The RG500 was revised for 1975 and now produced around 100bhp. Sheene’s season was curtailed by a sickening high-speed crash at Daytona in March, but he bounced back to take his and the RG500?s first 500cc World Championship victory at Assen later in the year. A second win, at Anderstorp, helped him to sixth in the Championship.

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Sponsorship from oil-company Texaco resulted in the UK-based squad being renamed Texaco Heron Team Suzuki for 1976 and taking over as the official works team following the withdrawal of Suzuki Japan. Suzuki altered the RG’s engine for 1976, adopting the classic dimensions of 54×54mm bore/stroke and fitting seven-port cylinder barrels. The two bikes built to this specification were reserved for Barry Sheene, while the two Johns – Newbold and Williams – continued to use the earlier type of engine. Power increased only marginally, but more importantly the design was now fully sorted and reliable, a state of affairs that enabled Barry Sheene to win five of the six World Championship rounds he contested and finish second in the other, bringing Suzuki its first title in Grand Prix racing’s premier class. Williams took a solitary win (at Spa-Francorchamps) while Newbold triumphed at Brno in a season that saw Suzukis win all bar one of the ten rounds of the 500cc World Championship.