Additional photos of this Lucky Strike Replica are available here for your perusal.
Named to the MotoGP Hall of Fame in 2000, Kevin Schwantz is a legend of motorcycle racing, and the second most successful American road racer (in terms of number of GP races won). He’s also been on some machines with wonderful liveries, such as the Pepsi Suzuki RGV500 and the Lucky Strike RGV500, with which he won the 1993 500cc World Championship.
The Lucky Strike livery has inspired several paint jobs on official Suzuki machines and unofficial custom builds. Falling in between the two is a limited run of 75 Kevin Schwantz replicas built with the Suzuki GSX-R750 by Suzuki’s official importer in the Netherlands.
As you can imagine, information on such a small run sold only in one country two decades ago can be tough to find, though we have seen a photo of a “Certificaat Van Echtheid” (Certificate of Authenticity) for another bike in this run that says (Google Translated): “I hereby declare, Kevin Schwantz, that ____ has become the owner of the Suzuki Team Lucky Strike Replica. This model is by the Dutch Suzuki importer B.V. NIMAG produced in a limited edition of 75 copies. I am convinced that you will enjoy driving this Suzuki GSX-R750W Kevin Schwantz Replica.” Please note that we do not have this Certificate for the bike currently for sale, the below is simply an example for a different bike:
The paint was done by “Motordesign Nistelrode”, though we are unable to determine if they are still in business.
This GSX-R750 (VIN: GR7BA108777) is obviously quite rare, and we love the European headlights and blue forks.
It shows 33,305 kilometer (20,815 miles) on the odometer.
This machine was imported to the US through the UK, with Colwyn Bay Motorcycles listed as the Registered Keeper. The sale includes a UK Registration Certificate and is offered with a Bill of Sale.
As noted in bottom of the image above, this Suzuki was “declared manufactured 1997”, though we believe this is a 1995 model.
This Suzuki was running when we put it on display in our private collection upstairs at our headquarters in Marina del Rey, California nine months ago. Now it’s time for it to star in your collection!
