Yoshimura Yoshimura Samurais of Speed When It Comes to Tuning Houses, Few Have Built up Such a Reputation for Excellence As Yoshimura; a Company of Greats
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Tuning Legends WORDS BY: JON URRY PICS BY: YOSHIMURA Yoshimura SamuraiS of Speed When it comes to tuning houses, few have built up such a reputation for excellence as Yoshimura; a company of greats This father and son Yoshimura’s reworking of the attention to detail that is combination is every bit as GS1000 propelled Yoshimura required achieving this, success important as Roberts and Rossi into the big time soon followed. Yoshimura-tuned engines won races in both the two and four wheeled world but it was victory at the Suzuka 18 hour in 1964 that helped put Yoshimura on the map. Riders Akira Matsumoto, Seiji Ogata and Kazuo Aoki won on a Honda CB77, defeating the Honda Laboratory Team. But Pops had a dream, he wanted to win the Daytona 200 race and so decided to expand the company and branch out into America. There was more to his decision than just the desire to tuning an engine wasn’t simply a case of win at Daytona. As well as a talented engine bolting on an exhaust pipe, Pops was an tuner, Pops was a businessman. He spotted engineer first and foremost and would file or the American’s love of the large multi- hand grind the engine’s components to make cylinder Japanese bikes of the early 1970s them better. And he was good, the American and sensed a business opportunity. If he servicemen, whose bikes he worked on, could tune these bikes into winners on the called him ‘God Hand,’ such was his skills. track, success in his shop would follow. In Soon his business was too big to be run 1971 Yoshimura Research & Development eing at the track, hearing the sweet from his home, so he bought a garage in America was set up in Los Angeles, the song of a finely tuned racing engine at downtown Tokyo and in 1954 formed timing was perfect. “bfull-chat, is music to our ears. We try Yoshimura Racing. A family run business, Alongside Honda’s revolutionary CB750, and impart this emotion to our customers.” Hideo employed his wife and children in his Kawasaki launched its Z1 and production Yoshimura’s President Fujio Yoshimura, son of new venture and it was this close-knit family bike racing in the States took off. Pops was • the company’s legendary founder ‘Pops’, environment that lead to his nickname ‘Pops’. explains what it is that keeps the company His wife, alongside her household duties, buzzing – even after half a century. created moulds for the exhaust pipes, while Racing is everything to Yoshimura, it’s the his children helped by keeping the books and The MJN cornerstone of the company’s philosophy and tuning the engines. Driven by his desire to win carburettor is what drives its extensive R&D departments races and the narrow focus and fanatical Invented by Yoshimura the MJN to greater feats of engineering prowess. If it (Multiple Jet Nozzle) carb proved both wasn’t for racing Yoshimura wouldn’t exist. more fuel efficient as well as improving The company’s roots are buried at the track a bike’s throttle response. Unlike a and the skills learned to hone every last bhp standard carb, the jet needle on the MJN from an engine proved invaluable to racers the carb is hollow and machined with world over. And one man started it all. precision holes on the side. When the Yoshimura Racing is the result of a throttle is opened the negative pressure lifetime’s dedication to motorcycle tuning by from the engine sucks the fuel through Hideo ‘Pops’ Yoshimura. A former wartime the holes, atomising it into a fine mist aircraft mechanic, Pops turned his hand to and improving combustion. Also, when tuning engines after Japan’s defeat in World the throttle is shut small amounts of War II. Pops simply made do with whatever fuel escapes through the holes into the materials and tools he could find and used his engine, improving the initial throttle considerable engineering skills to ensure he response as there is less lag. This is got the required result – namely speed and exactly the technology and theory that it power. People were soon seeking him out to 50 years of hard work and development comes built-in to has taken fuel injection companies years work on their bikes. This was a time when every Yoshimura product; from race cams to end cans to develop, and they still haven’t got it ‘Pops’ at the coal face. Hideo Yoshimura was simply a right! Fujio Yoshimura invented the MJN magician with metal carb in 1992! fast bikes mag.com november 2010 75 TuNiNg LegeNds Tuning Legends Pops returned to Japan to concentrate on guidance of Fujio the R&D department in growing the Japanese side of the business, America was at the forefront of bike tuning leaving his eldest son, Fujio, in charge of technology. In 1986 it invented the Duplex Yoshimura R&D America. Cyclone silencer, a can designed to overcome Under Fujio’s direction, Yoshimura R&D ever-tightening noise emissions laws without continued to expand and the 1980s was a reducing power, and followed it up a year later breeding ground for racing stars. The advent of with the Sanper exhaust for single cylinder the GSX-R750 in 1985 not only introduced the bikes. This was a new direction world to what we now know as superbikes, it for Yoshimura and with the also unleashed a young Texan called Kevin street bike market becoming Schwantz onto the scene. Pictures of more sports orientated, with Schwantz wrestling the Yoshi GS750 superbike bikes such as the GSX-R750 like a bucking bronco and sliding it into and revolutionising the scene, out of every corner soon made him a hero. But Yoshimura spotted the growing it was the Yoshi’ GSX-R and Schwantz’s ‘win trend for modification. The or bin’ attitude that made him a star. “With company opened a dedicated Michelin tyres on, the Yoshi’ GSX-R was a exhaust factory in 1991 and a dream to ride. We won races all year but I year later launched the first crashed too much and lost the title to Wayne cans made from titanium and Rainey. The bike was good enough, but I carbon fibre. It even offered a was young and stupid,” remembers year’s warranty on them, race hisTorY Schwantz. putting its money where its The 1980s were an mouth was when it came to Where do you start? Here is just a exciting time for their quality. To this day, every sample of Yoshimura’s racing history: Yoshimura and single Yoshimura exhaust, all under the 6,000 a month, is hand 1964 – Won the Suzuka 18 (yes, 18, it was welded. And it didn’t a man’s race then) hour race with a CB77. stop there. • 1971 – Bike racer Manoru Moriwaki won the All Japan Fuji 1000km race and hideo ‘PoPs’ SUZUKI ASKED YOSHIMURA TO BE YoshiMura Yoshimura’s Japanese Grand Prix (GTS1) in a hard work Yoshimura tuned Honda S600 car. ITS OFFICIAL FACTORY RACING ARM on the 1987 Born in Fukuoka City, Japan, in October 7, ” 1978 – Won the Suzuka 8 hour with a GSX-R750 still 1922, Hideo was called into military • there to reap the rewards and it wasn’t long wins for Pops on the banking. Better was to looks lush today Suzuki GS1000 with Wes Cooley riding service during World War II where he before the Yoshimura name was synonymous come. Rising star Wes Cooley was partnered and Steve McLaughlin won the Daytona initially trained as a pilot. Following a with wins, a reputation that was cemented by Mike Baldwin at the inaugural Suzuka 8 Superbike race on a GS1000. parachuting accident his dreams of when Yvon Duhamel won a superbike Hour on a Yoshimura GS1000. To the surprise 1979 – Got ‘the broom’ at the Daytona flying were cut short and instead he production race on a Yoshimura Z1 in 1973. of many (although not Pops) they took the 200 and swept the podium, finishing trained as an aircraft engineer. After the The Yoshi name became a national brand, but win. Yoshimura had taken what was first, second and third on GS1000s. war he gained a reputation for being this was the tip of the iceberg. effectively a road bike with flat bars and Yoshimura topped the podium for the able to modify and tune the BSAs and In 1976 AMA superbike racing became a beaten GP machinery of the day. next two years, making it four in a row. Triumphs of the US servicemen national class and Pops ensured that Back in America, Cooley soon started AMA superbike champions. stationed in Japan using nothing but his Yoshimura tuned Z1s were at the front of the dominating the superbike field. He took the 1980 – Won Suzuki 8 hour by the closest considerable skill and some very grid. Success didn’t come instantly and it 1979 and 1980 superbike title on a Yoshimura time ever. The lucky number 12 from this worn-out parts. In 1954 he took his wasn’t until a year later that a bike was GS750, a feat that not only put the name race bike was adopted by the team for expertise and opened his first shop, launched that not only propelled Yoshimura to Yoshimura on every racer’s wish list, but also every subsequent 8 Hour race. Second Yoshimura Racing, with the help of his a new level. It also formed a relationship that turned the GS750 in a huge sales success.