1982 Harris Kawasaki F1 Race Bike For Sale by Auction

National Motorcycle Museum | Solihull, West Midlands

Viewing: Tuesday 25th March from 1pm
Auction: Wednesday 26th March from 9am
Location: National Motorcycle Museum, Coventry Road, Bickenhill, Solihull B92 0EJ

1982 Harris Kawasaki F1 Race Bike
Built by Harris Performance in 1982.

Estimate
£10, 000 - £12, 000

Genuine Formula 1 bike built by Harris Performance
Supplied with a spare engine, wheels and bodywork etc.
A ready to race CRMC registered race team package
The Formula One, Two and Three World Championships were announced in 1977 as a way of keeping the IOM TT on the international calendar and encouraging road bike-based 4-strokes into racing, at the time dominated by 2-strokes. Formula One became the most popular class using 1000cc engines in bespoke chassis from the likes of Harris and P+M and proved to be the forerunner to the current World Superbike Championship.

This historic Formula One bike was built by Harris Performance for well-known sponsor Colin Aldridge in 1982, originally with a Z1000 engine built by Jim Wells at John Carpenter’s Mistral Engineering. When the rules changed in 1984, Harris fitted a Z750 motor and it was ridden in that year's TT by Bernard Murray and later ridden to 4th place at Assen by Kevin Wrettom, with an interesting letter from Steve Harris telling the story of the ride. Many years later it was actually used by Harris to re-make the jigs to manufacture the F1 frame for classic racing, so all later frames are a copy of this one. The vendor, a former Chairman of the CRMC, has successfully campaigned it in CRMC races from 2007, initially as a 750 and then returned to original 1000cc spec with an engine tuned by respected engineer Graham Salter of Diptune producing 122bhp at the rear wheel (full spec and dyno chart supplied). The vendor has competed on the bike as one of the Team GB riders in the Phillip Island International Classic between 2007-2013 and with an alternator and lights fitted, raced successfully many times in endurance events at Spa-Francorchamps (Belgium) and Circuit Carole (France) in 4-hour races and in England at Snetterton in 2015 and then Donington 2018. In 2011 the bike finished 8th out of 70 starters at Spa with the story featured in Classic Racer magazine. In 2018, the bike had an extensive recommissioning that included a full engine strip down, the frame re-jigged and checked for being straight and the tank, seat and fairing resprayed. Included in the full race team package is a spare engine built by Graham Salter that's never been run, a spare pair of Astralite wheels, spare tyres and a freshly repainted spare seat and fairing. Also to be included in the sale is the original Red fairing and seat, as used in 1984 and a mechanical anti-dive system, along with all the original brackets and fixings. A bike with a great history that is a ready to go package for competing in classic endurance and Formula 1 events.

** Bidding will take place live at the venue, online via our H&H website, by telephone and commission - T&Cs apply**

Parking and entry into the auction is free for auction attendees with a catalogue, available at the door.
Catalogues can be purchased for £20 (admits 2 people).