Yamaha YZR500

By Richard Fowler of Motorsport Retro—This exquisite piece of rolling sculpture is Yamaha’s 1975 YZR500. It's the OW23 variant, the machine that took Giacomo Agostini to the last of his incredible 15 World Championships. Making its first appearance in the 1974 Belgian GP, the OW23 was designed specifically for 500cc Grand Prix racing. (Its predecessor, the OW20 TZ750, was based on a planned but never released road bike). Under that curvaceous fairing is a traverse water-cooled two-stroke in-line four. This beautifully engineered powerplant delivered a stunning 95hp and revved to 11,000 rpm. It propelled the white, red and black racer...