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Click on any image to enlarge.
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The OW01 was a designation that the factory gave their FZR750RR after the bike was turned into one of their factory race kit bikes. These bikes were a homologation special, meaning there were 200 FZR750RR's made that particular year for world wide racing needs. They all produced 100 hp from the factory to comply with some European Country's HP limitations. There were then race kits made for about 2/3 of the bikes produced. This particular FZR750RRA/OW01 ("A" meaning 1990) bike was an ex-Vance & Hines OW01 built for Larry Swartzbach by Vance & Hines. He was tragically killed in Mid-Ohio racing this bike in 1990. The bike was then purchased by Yamaha of Jacksonville and raced by Dr. Bob Meister in 1991. Bob, and then team mate Scott Zampach, could never come to terms with the bikes.
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When I first saw the bike, it still had the Superbike engine in it. The frame and suspension components were heavily worn from 2 seasons of racing and needed some freshening up. The engine was very tired and needed a lot of TLC. All the fasteners on the chassis were replaced, all the bushing and bearings replaced, the engine was gone through and set aside. A stock FZR1000 motor was fit into the chassis and Supersport prepped. It went out with the 5 speed trans for it's first race and we immediately had a problem. Not a very good start for the season. The next race had a similar ending when the remote oil filtration system failed and caused the main bearings to fail. The second failure in two attempts, definitely not a good start to a season of racing.
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Before the third race, I removed every external control or accessory that was not designed or built by the factory. Installed a new set of Cosworth 1040cc pistons, Crower Titanium connecting rods, a Falicon 12 lb Super Crank, the kit trans, kit ignitor box, kit oil pump and oil cooler, duplicated the cylinder head that was on my FZ, installed a set of kit cams and set them to the factory suggested settings for the 750 engine, Yoshimura made a special pipe for me, and I rebuilt the Factory dual float bowl magnesium carbs and installed 4 float bowls and replaced the fuel pump.
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On the first ride it was clear that this bike was so much better than anything that Bob had ridden before he reset the track lap record at Blackhawk Farms by almost a full second. We fiddled with the jetting and cam timing and the suspension settings over the rest of the next 2 days and carved another .5 sec from the lap record. From that point on, the only person to beat Dr. Bob was Jimmy Adamo at Daytona during the R.O.C. and that loss was my fault as I didn't know what to gear the bike at. The Blackhawk Farms Track Lap Record of 1 min.,13.6 sec., stood from 93 to 2001. It was set in September of '93 and was Bob's last race before he retired.
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There are several different guises that this bike went through. The final paint and bodywork combos are with the half fairing and yellow wheels. With the lowers off, the bike had no more ground clearance problems and it also ran about 10 degrees cooler water temps. It also ran richer at small throttle openings, leaner at wider settings and just plain ran out of air at speeds above 150 mph, it took a set of small scoops under the nose of the fairing and some tubes up to the carbs to stabilize the carburetion.
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This is after a massive rebuild of the chassis and suspension, when everything that was not a part of the chassis was replaced or rebuilt. Including replacing every rivnut and bearing and bushing, wheels and all. New AirTech Composite YZF Bodywork too.
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The bike is currently in semiretirement and is raced about twice a year. It still has the Cosworth pistons, Crower Ti rods, and Falicon crank in it that I installed in '92 and they still looked EXCELLENT last year! It weighed 320 lbs on Daytona's scales and made about 174 RWHP on a very hot day in Michigan in 1992.
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