It’s not every day you’re sent off to Spa to ride something older and more valuable than you are, but that’s what happened to Pretty Boy recently.

WORDS: CARL ‘PRETTYBOY’STEVENS PICS:NICOLAS LAMBERT

RETRO GSX-R RACER

Cold slicks didn’t stop the fun.

So you get a call asking if you can ride a factory replica endurance racer around arguably one of the world’s best race tracks… Damn right I can! I’m definitely a bigger fan of modern era bikes, rather than anything pre-naughties (with the exception of a few classics, of course), but getting the chance to cock a leg over a stunning 1987 GSX-R750 endurance racer was an opportunity I simply couldn’t turn down – even if I am a bit ageist (joking!). The big question was what I’d make of it, and whether it would alter my preconception of classic bikes, which I’ve always imagined to be sluggish and boring. But could it really be that awful to ride? Would it be as diabolically slow as I anticipated, or handle like a pig? I know the more mature ladies and gents reading this will be sitting there and wishing they could give me a bit of a slap (and an education). But, my God, I got one, so fear not…

Just to whet your appetites a bit, this machine I was set to ride wasn’t your everyday 80s Gixer. It was 100% filth (The good kind, that is). I mean, at first glance, having arrived at the Belgium circuit, the Harris racing factory rep’s chassis gleamed like a work of art, while the pristine bodywork that wrapped around the 749cc powerplant like an 80s pornstar wearing a tiny little beach towel, was nothing short of stunning. But this bike’s beauty was more than just skin deep, with an abundance of trick parts and countless man hours ensuring the retro Suzuki rode as good as it looked. After all, this was a race bike, not a toy destined for display purposes in the corner of some dreary office. At the heart of the bike was the production based motor, which had been fettled with a factory five-speed GSX-R1100 gearbox and some Yoshimura Stage 2 camshafts. Many other tuning components ensured a power increase over the standard GSX-R’s output, but the build was a considered one, with reliability being as important to the recipe as sheer performance.