It may not be Yamaha’s most talked about 500cc Grand Prix machine, but the YZR500 #10 that Kenny Roberts Jr. raced in the 500cc Grand Prix in 1996 and has recently been auctioned for a record amount. Although $321,000 is actually a bargain for a Grand Prix racer, because that’s how much the 1996 Yamaha YZR500 OWJ1 sold at Iconic Motorbikes.
You may not believe it, but most factory racers do not end their lives in a museum, but are shredded by the manufacturers at the end of the season, so as not to risk competition with the technology they developed. can get hold of. So the chance that you can get hold of a Grand Prix machine at an auction somewhere is
so very small. Sunny California-based Iconic Motorbikes, which – as the name suggests – focuses on iconic motorcycles that are now sold through online auctions on its own website, recently got their hands on the 1996 Yamaha YZR500 OWJ1, which Kenny Robert Jr. entered the 500cc world championship in 1996.
That year Kenny Jr rode for the official Marlboro Yamaha factory team (tobacco advertising was still very common in those days) that was run by his father Kenny Roberts Sr. was run. It would be the last season that Roberts Sr. raced with Yamaha, the following year he started his own team Marlboro Team Roberts with the Modenas KR3, a 500cc three-cylinder, which when the Malaysian motorcycle manufacturer Modenas was taken over by car giant Proton was renamed Proton KR3.
When developing the 1996 model (OWJ1), Yamaha had done a thorough job. The last world title had been won by Wayne Rainey in 1992, but after his crash at Misano in 1993 (when it was still going counterclockwise and in which he suffered a spinal cord injury – for which reason the circuit would be removed from the calendar) Yamaha’s dominant role was played out.
The OWJ1 was equipped with a completely newly developed frame, where the subframe was eliminated. The seat was now made of reinforced carbon fiber, mounted directly to the frame. The 499cc two-stroke V4 was also completely redesigned by Yamaha, with a bore x stroke of 54 x 54 mm and a forged “Powder Metal” piston. Yamaha stated that these adjustments had resulted in a boost in top speed through a better balance of power and
achieve a torque characteristic based on the total efficiency of the intake and exhaust path rather than simply increasing the speed. Yamaha claimed top horsepower of 177 horsepower from the 499cc two-stroke.
With Nakeds already putting out more power than that these days that might sound ridiculously little, but remember that a 2-stroke engine does work every revolution, so you could argue that the power of a 2-stroke should be double counted against a 4 -cycle engine, which produces work only every 2 revolutions. The four-cylinder 500cc machines also weighed only 130 kilos at the time.
Kenny Roberts Jr made his 500cc debut in 1996 after three 250cc seasons on Team Roberts riding the Yamaha TZM250 and finished the season in 13th place with 69 points behind his teammates Norick Abe (4th), Jean-Michel Bayle (9th) and Loris Capirossi (10th).
His best result was Roberts Jr. at Brno, when he finished in 4th place, 4.4 seconds off race winner Alex Criville and 1.5 seconds off the podium. Robert Jr. had then also qualified in 4th place from the first row of the grid (at that time there were still 4 motorcycles next to each other on the grid per row). However, his best qualifying had been two races before, at the British Grand Prix at Donington Park he had qualified in 3rd place. The now auctioned machine still has the sticker of the technical inspection of that British Grand Prix. Kenny Roberts Jr. took the lead in the race at the start, but went down on the 9th lap.
The YZR500 now auctioned by Iconic Motorbikes with production code F9-60/96-4 is the only OWJ1 in the world outside the Yamaha factory, owned by Kenny Roberts Sr. at the end of the season. came, presumably as a gift from Yamaha for his services. Kenny sold the machine to Rick Degan of RMD Motors in Japan, who in turn sold it to a private party in England 3 years ago.
The British owner has taken care of the OWJ1 from head to tail. The suspension has been refreshed, the engine rebuilt and thoroughly serviced before Kenny Roberts Sr. chased the machine up the hill at this year’s 2022 Goodwood Festival of Speed. The machine was part of Class 15: Two-WHeel Grand Prix Heroes and was signed at Goodwood by Kenny Roberts Sr., Wayne Rainy, Kevin Schwantz and Dani Pedrosa, among others.
After the online auction started on October 21, the $100,000 mark was passed that same morning. At the end of the auction on October 28, the highest bid was $300,101, but the reserve price had not yet been reached. The seller then accepted an offer of $321,000 including auction fees.
Photography: Gray van Dyke
– Thanks for information from Motorfreaks.