Iadmit, he had me fooled. After owning 14 different Yamahas with a fifth hole in the top of each cylinder, I do fancy myself as a bit of a 20-valve Yamaha aficionado.
But engineer Tom ‘Bob’ Blair’s spectacular YZF750 done me up good and proper. Its sparkling magenta and yellow Vance & Hines paint scheme lit up a corner of the paddock at a Classic Bike Trackday event at Castle Combe in Wiltshire, so having caught my eye I ambled over to say ‘nice YZF’! I suspected nothing unusual but Bob told me it wasn’t a YZF: “It’s a Thunderace,” he answered…
I had to take a second look to believe him. A quick glance at the frame above the swingarm pivot where the Ace and YZF have some minor differences and, yeah, it was an Ace! From henceforth in this article, YZF means 750 and Ace means, well, you know what I mean…
It’s clear why someone would hide a Thunderace in YZF clothes: nobody likes the way a Thunderace looks, and everyone wants a faster YZF. As expected, Bob said: “I wanted the power of a 1000, but one that looked and handled more like the YZF.” But he also continued with some added motivation from his past. “I had an FZR600R (the Foxeye one that looks just like the YZF750) and before that an earlier FZR600 in Vance & Hines colours. I suppose this project delivers all
