Rare 1986 Suzuki RG500 Gamma Walter Wolf Motorcycle In BaT

• This is an oversized two-stroke GP bike that is barely running and is extremely rare.

• Finished in the navy blue, gold and red racing livery from the Walter Wolf racing team, this bike pays homage to one of the most exciting characters in motorsport.

• This BaT auction ends on December 28.

If you’ve never heard of Walter Wolf, get ready for a wild ride. A deepwater oil rig driver who arrived in Montreal as a nearly penniless immigrant from post-World War II Slovenia, Wolf was such a success in the speculative oil markets of the 1970s that he was able to campaign for his own F1 team. . The team won him a Ferrari 512BB in a handshake bet with Enzo in the results of the 1977 Monaco Grand Prix, though he may be seen driving around the road in things like a Le Mans–spec Porsche 935 with leather interior and air conditioning. .

Oh, and he pulled out his own Wolf brand cologne and cigarettes. In comparison, the fictional Dos Equis “most attractive” man might as well be a tax accountant.

Wolf somehow found time to develop a partnership with Suzuki and form a motorcycle racing team. In 1982, racer Masaru Mizutani raced the Wolf-sponsored Suzuki RG500 in the 500cc All Japan Championship and won. Suzuki decided the tribute bike was in order. It was built for only two model years, 1986 and 1987.

The performance of this 498 cc motorbike is still insane in the modern era. Thanks to its twin-spar aluminum frame, it weighed just 340 pounds, about the same as the modern Honda CB300F. Still, with 95 horsepower at the crank, roughly three times the Honda’s power, a blue smoked death engine with four dampers, four Mikuni carbs, and an 11,000 rpm red line.

Auction Ends December 28th

This example is currently for sale on Bring a Trailerwhich, like Car and Driver, is part of Hearst Autos. With only a few days to go until the December 28 deadline, the offer is up to $12,300. That’s a trivial amount for a machine that will run a quarter mile in a mid-11-second span.

And it really is peanuts compared to other vehicles bearing the Wolf signature. Walter Wolf is perhaps best known for his under-the-counter-funded prototype Countachs, a one-off car with a handcrafted engine by Gian Paolo Dallara. Three were made, and they hint at the fender flare and wild wing excess of the 1980s. Everything is worth six or seven figures today.

A motorcycle in the uniform of a wolf will outperform this exotic by most performance metrics, but at a fraction of the price. And the motorsports cognoscenti will lose their heads if you show up to a meeting riding this thing. Wolf Racing employed the likes of F1 champions James Hunt and Jody Scheckter, and he was right at the center of the Formula 1 circus in the late 1970s.

There’s no better way to outperform a modern 911 in its tired and completely predictable Gulf Oil livery. Porsche is just a Steve McQueen cosplay. This Wolf brand motorcycle has a fierce bite and a background that truly comes from motorsport. Before December 28th, we advise you to run like the Wolves or rush back to the paddock with the other sheep.