GREEN MEANIE
Kawasaki’s inline four-cylinder 750cc production racers did well worldwide in the various championships they were eligible in.
In 1988, with the new global series – the World Superbike Championship – proving to be the perfect way for the major manufacturers to showcase their new machinery, the long-in-the-tooth Kawasaki GPX750 needed replacing.
The first models of the ZXR750 series, the H1 and H2, had motors based closely on the old GPX’s, but the chassis and styling were more in keeping with the competition of the time, most notably the racier homologation specials such as Honda’s V4 RC30 and Yamaha’s OW-01. The Kwak would develop and evolve both on road and track, becoming the ZX-7R from 1996 on.
On track the bike would become the only inline four-cylinder 750 to win the WSB title in 1993 with Scott Russell aboard the Muzzyrun machine but around the world the ‘green meanies’ would do well in all levels of racing, being plentiful, powerful and relatively cheap to run/tune – especially in comparison to the likes of the Ducati V-twin 888/916
