Three E27 Wire Wheelers at Mansfield

Kiwialfa

Kiwialfa

Carl Coleman has just joined a forum I'm a part of and posted this pic, his explanation follows.

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"In New Zealand, the premier production racing class back in the 1970s-1990s was the "The Open Class Production Championship". The No1 team which South Pacific Suzuki Distributors Ltd (referred to as "Coleman Suzuki" by most people) supported was the Wellington Motorcycle Centre Race Team. The riders of the team were David (Dave) Hiscock, Neville (Nev) Hiscock, Robert Holden and Bob Toomey. The photograph shows Dave Hiscock #1 leading, with Bob Toomey #4 and Robert Holden #3 in hot pursuit. All three are riding GSX1100SXZ-E27s. The circuit is Manfeild, located in New Zealand's North Island. The 1981/82 NZ Open Class Production Championship was won by Dave Hiscock riding a GSX1100SXZ-E27, easily beating the Honda CB1100RBs. By memory, GSX1100SXZ-E27 riders won all races during the championship. Again, by memory, it was Suzuki's sixth consecutive year of winning the NZ Open Class Production Championship - in order - GS750B, GS1000EC, GS1000EN, GSX1100ET, GSX1100T, GSX1100SXZ. Very much to the annoyance of Honda and Kawasaki, who tried to win with Honda CB900F, CBX1000 and CB1100R, and Kawasaki with Z1000 and GPZ900R. SUZUKI beat them all."
 
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Hey Pete, what Carl has been sharing in the SXZ FB group has been fascinating and answers a lot of questions like why NZ for the hot rod SXZ? And in essence it was due to the personal and business relationship between the Coleman family and the Suzuki family. In a post Carl shared a personal letter of condolence from Osamu Suzuki, chairman of Suzuki Motor Corporation from 1978 - 2021, on the passing of Carl's dad, Rod Coleman in 2019. In 1952, Rod Coleman finished fourth in both the 350cc and 500cc world championships, and then in 1954 had a career-high third place finish in 350cc while coming fifth in 500cc riding for AJS. In 1954 he won the IoM Junior TT on a 350 AJS 7R, New Zealand's first IoM TT winner.

It seems that Coleman's NZ was one of the first to sign a distribution deal with Suzuki Motor Corporation in 1959. There were two others that made up the initial international sales network, one from Australia and one from France/Belgium. At the 1960 or 61 IoM TT, NZ rider Hugh Anderson's bike blew up terminally in practice, which was a bit of a problem as he was relying on winning and using the prize money from the TT and subsequent races to get home to NZ. Percy Coleman, Carl's grandfather, upon hearing of Anderson's plight purchased a brand new 7R and had it delivered to Hugh's lodgings, much to his surprise and delight.

Rod Coleman also convinced Suzuki to give a works ride to Hugh Anderson in the 50cc and 125cc class for the world championships. Hugh won in Argentina in 1962, and delivered Suzuki it's first Grand Prix Constructors titles in 1963, in both 50 and 125 classes. To quote from Osamu Suzuki's condolence letter some 56 years later, "But we will never forget your father's exclusive and incessant support and attention was always behind Anderson's successful career and that is what made our dreams come true in motorcycle racing." Wow!

Later Rod also convinced Suzuki GB to give a fella called Graeme Crosby a test ride on the GS1000R XR69, even though directors of Suzuki GB were adamant they wanted a GB rider for the F1 program, going on to win the World Championship in 1980 and 1981. The early 80's also saw Suzuki motorcycle new registrations outstrip Honda for the number 1 spot in New Zealand. Another first for Suzuki.

So little wonder when Rod asked for a 'production' bike to beat the Honda CB1100R in NZ domestic racing, the GSX1100-SXZ-E27 was delivered.
 
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Hi Drillit, I've posted and asked Carl. In his first post he did say "... I will provide some information on how the SXZ-E27 came to being produced, plus it's predecessors, the GSX1100T-E27 and GSX1100X-E27" So stand by.
 
drillit said:
Hi Darryl,
Awesome ta.
Can you also please ask about the GSX black pipers?
Click to expand...
"The Black Pipers (produced in two batches: 1980 5 x GSX1100T and 1981 20 x GSX1100X) had the same camshafts, carburetors, clutch, wire spoke wheels and exhaust modifications as the later SXZs. The BPs did not have the braided brake hoses, nor the GS1100GZ front brake calipers of the SXZs, as the GS1100GZ had not yet entered production. At another time I will post the activities which led up to the production of the GSX1100T and GSX1100X."
 
I never heard of alu tanks and adjustable engine mounts on the BPs, and I'm sure Carl would have mentioned this if they existed. The SXZ-E27 don't have this. The E27s were homologation specials for production racing and the modifications are about adding a little more power (cams, carbs, pipes, clutch and airbox), grip (wider rims) and later some more braking (calipers and lines). They had enough of an advantage to win, but not enough to make everyone else look silly. I would think if they were too far from stock, the ACU may have raised the number required to be available for sale for homologation. The rules changed from 5 units to 20 units sold for 1981.
 
The alu tanks would have been ex-Japan but ovalised engine mounts may have been locally developed.....
 
WOW, great info. Ive learnt something ,I like that.
So some Qs, Was the E24 NZ and the E27 south african?? I know they had different designations mainly on cam profile( similar no.s made 20 to 25 specials).
Old rumour was the South Africans had yoshi profiled cams and the 1 Katana that was again even better speck still sits with the Coleman family as supplied to them from new. Last special built just for the man himself the Suzuki dealer of the time.

Any more info along the above info?
Its just 35 year old info needs to be kept alive for us Katana lovers. It still carried a lot of special mods for the time.

Besides, everyone loves a factory special and the stories behind them.

Supa
 
Supasteve said:
WOW, great info. Ive learnt something ,I like that.
So some Qs, Was the E24 NZ and the E27 south african?? I know they had different designations mainly on cam profile( similar no.s made 20 to 25 specials).
Old rumour was the South Africans had yoshi profiled cams and the 1 Katana that was again even better speck still sits with the Coleman family as supplied to them from new. Last special built just for the man himself the Suzuki dealer of the time.

Any more info along the above info?
Its just 35 year old info needs to be kept alive for us Katana lovers. It still carried a lot of special mods for the time.

Besides, everyone loves a factory special and the stories behind them.

Supa
Click to expand...
Hi There, E27 is the country code for New Zealand. E24 is the country code for Australia. The E code is about the bike meeting the local regulations for road worthiness. The E27 Spec had the hot motor from the factory, no bits were ever added by Colemans as they were intended for production racing -which meant unmodified, as delivered from the factory, with enough units produced to qualify as production and not a special, and be for sale to the public. So they were factory homologation special that met these requirements, the "X" in SXZ . The E27 Katana 1100SXZ was built and delivered because of the personal relationship between O. Suzuki (CEO) and Rod Coleman, a relationship that resulted in a Kiwi giving Suzuki its first world championships.

At some stage there must of been a plan to do something similar for Australia, as an E24 SXZ parts book was printed with all the X alternative parts, but when E24 SXZ were shipped they got the standard SZ motor/carbs/exhaust. Why they didn't deliver is anyone's guess, but it may have been that they didn't meet ADR emissions levels (there was no emissions regulations in NZ at the time) or perhaps the incoming 1000cc limit for 1983 in Australian racing, or may be too many units were required? Again there has never been information that I've seen. The existence of the E24 part book has led some people to believe the E24 also got the fruity bits, but those who know these bikes, know better....

Not much is known in NZ about the SA delivered E27s (which must have met the SA compliance regulations, what ever they were at the time), although 25 units is often quoted and I assume this is because that was the unit requirement to qualify as a production machine, rather than a 'special build'. From what I've heard from South Africa, the SA production class was a bit looser back in they day than the strict NZ class, and some modifications were allowed. The chrome-moly tubular swing arm that a lot of SA E27 Kats sport might be an example of this, as this swing arm can't be found in any parts listings and there was never (to my knowledge) a South African version of a New Zealand model Parts Book/microfiche (which sounds improbable anyway).

To confuse the SA thing a little more, I am reliably told that there was a tuning/fabrication company in SA in the late 70's early 80's called 'Striker' or 'Stryker', who modified big Jap bikes, Kwakas, Hondas and Suzukis -including Katanas. Often you'll hear SA folk referring to E27 SXZs as "Strikers" and while its possible that Striker may have modified some SXZs (hey, they might be responsible for the chrome moly swingarm, but who knows?), it seems that a Striker and an E27 SXZ are different things.

I know that the E27 1100SXD exists, and that only one unit was produced. Whether it was higher performance/specification than the SXZ I don't know. Essentially the Katana was obsolete as a racer by 1982, so the SXD was the first of planned run that never happened. Class rule changes and the next generation of repli-racers was about to drop. Suzuki and especially the late Etsuo Yokouchi (seriously google this guy), were developing the GSX-R750R.

In my opinion Yokouchi, should be include as one of the fathers of the Katana, along with Muth, Fellstom, and Kasten. Fellstrom was responsible for the detailed design work (Katana drawings) from concepts by Muth (MV Agusta Provda), but it was Yokouchi who made the design into a production reality, It was he who turned the Katana from a design concept into something you could buy and ride.
 
Thank you Yes E24 Aus Bathurst models? Wire wheels basically. Great info. So the last special still sits with the Coleman family? Supa
 
Supasteve said:
Thank you Yes E24 Aus Bathurst models? Wire wheels basically. Great info. So the last special still sits with the Coleman family? Supa
Click to expand...
All Suzuki Australian compliant vehicles of whatever model, including cars use the Suzuki market code E24. There was a run of GSX1100SXZ for Australia so E24, which (AFAIK) had the wider rim wire wheels fitted (E24 SXZ owners will know more about this than me.) The is a list of the VIN numbers for the E24 SXZs is known to some members on this forum. The term 'Bathurst Special', I think -and its only my theory- is a bit like the Saffer 'Katana Striker' in that its folklore term born out of some confusion about, and/or a conflation of different bikes around at the time. The biggest production (i.e. as it came out of the box) race on both sides of the Tasman in 1982 was the Australian Castrol 6-Hour and the NZ Castrol 6-hour. The Aussie Castrol 6-Hour was only raced at Amaroo and Oran Park, never at Bathurst. In 1982 the premier motorcycle race at Bathurst was the Arai 500 which had a mixed field of GP bikes, Superbikes, as well as production. Looking at the reports of the time (see links below), Mick Hone was running a modified Katana in the Superbike class, but it seems unlikely that "Bathurst Specials" were built to race in what wasn't the premier end of the Arai 500 field. To my knowledge Carl Coleman still owns the SXD.

https://www.mcnews.com.au/bathurst-1982-lens-phil-aynsley/
amcn.com.au

EASTER RACING AT BATHURST

Greg Pretty sits inside the concrete wall at Bathurst’s GTX Bend, sipping reflectively on a steel tin of Carlton Draught while he fiddles with the ring-pull clip (photo at right). Moments earlier he had been on target to claim second place in the 500GP on the Yamaha-Pitmans TZ500. But as Pretty...
amcn.com.au
 
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