SUZUKI, LIKE KAWASAKI, WAS LATE TO THE 750 four-stroke party, and its two-stroke offering was much more softly spoken than the Kawasaki H2. Significantly, it had far more substantial engineering, too. Launched at the 17 th International Motor Show in Tokyo in 1970, an event designed for the car industry rather than the motorcycle world, the GT750 immediately had a real impact, managing to out-cool Honda’s CB750 and Kawasaki’s Mach III. The prototype GT had a transverse, inline three-cylinder two-stroke motor with five gears, a rumoured 75bhp power output and electronic ignition. The engine was designed by Etsuo Yokouchi, the genius who produced Suzuki’s 250 and 500 twins and later the RG500 racer. Quite a resume.
The big attention grabber wasn’t the engine; it was the radiator. The GT750 was the first road-going motorcycle with water cooling (hence the nickname ‘The Kettle’) since the Scott had arrived in the 1930s, and Suzuki’s stylists made a point of making sure everybody knew about it. The large radiator on the front was assisted in its work by an electric fan and polished barrels, with no fins on the sides. There were short fins on the cylinder heads and the front of the barrels, while large rubber pipes ran coolant into the heads. The lack of obvious barrel fins meant you could see the exhaust and carburettor stubs. Three carbs fed the fuel in, there was simple piston port induction and ‘Posiforce’ oil injection and, on the prototype, only a kick-start. With four exhaust pipes and a striking candy lavender, blue or gold paint scheme, the GT was a hit
