Listen, the late ’70s and ’80s were wild. It was peak cocaine. And, naturally, the machines that came out of this era were cocaine-fueled fantasies of the highest order. I mean, look at a Lamborghini Countach and tell me cocaine wasn’t involved.
But even with all that white powder flowing through executives and designers, despite some dope-af color schemes within the motorcycling world, everything stayed pretty tame. Nothing went as hard or as wild or weird as a Vector or F-117 Nighthawk. Every OEM stayed fairly conservative.
Except Kawasaki.
In a stroke of brilliance/being high, Kawasaki corporate took a container ship’s worth of Z1R sport bikes, sent them to the good ole US of A, and had them picked up by former Kawasaki exec Alan Masek who, wouldn’t you know, was running a company called Turbo Cycle Company. What’d Alan do with the Z1Rs you ask? The only thing you’d expect; he turbo’d and supercharged them.
Cocaine is a helluva drug.
Obviously, I jest. I have no knowledge that anyone involved in this partnership was using cocaine. It’s just that how do you come up with turbocharging and/or supercharging a pretty dang powerful street motorcycle in the late ’70s? I mean, that brilliance has to come from somewhere.
According to Silodrome, the Z1R-TCs were a joint production between the companies, which saw Turbo Cycle Company modify the already quick motorcycles with new carbs and exhaust, new headers, and a fat ATP turbocharger with an adjustable wastegate. Further, Turbo Cycle Company added a boost gauge to the gauges, as well as a host of new decals to denote the motorcycle’s specialness.
My favorite detail, however, is that each motorcycle came with legal paperwork, including a liability waiver, “that had to be signed by any prospective owner before they were allowed to buy a Z1R-TC off the Kawasaki showroom floor.” I can just imagine someone walking into a dealership, studying the Z1R-TC, dropping down their cash, and then spending the next twenty minutes signing waiver after waiver after waiver saying they’re not going to sue anyone if/when they turbo-boost themselves into a tree.
God, imagine the lag of a ’70s turbocharged motorcycle. And now you could own 10 of these manic machines.
The eBay listing for this expansive collection states, “I am offering for sale my unique, rare and significant collection of 1978 Kawasaki KZ1000 Z1R Turbocharged and Supercharged motorcycles. I have been an avid car and motorcycle racer since the early 1970’s, I’m no stranger to extremely fast vehicles. I always had a soft spot in my heart for Kawasaki’s and owned and raced many over the last four decades. I acquired these forced induction Kawasaki’s over the years but now it is time for someone else to enjoy and curate these marvelous and stunning motorcycles.”
As for the motorcycles themselves, there are eight original Z1R-TCs, one clone, and one supercharged version. According to the listing, “This is an extraordinary opportunity to own a piece of motorcycle history. Out of the “519” Z1R TCs produced in 1978-1979 by Turbo Cycle Corp., only around 90 are known to still exist today. Many were converted into drag bikes and met their demise through racing, making these remaining original Z1R TC’s sought after and incredibly rare.”
The seller states that while they’d like to sell them off as a collection, they are willing to entertain selling individual motorcycles by themselves. As for price, they want $352,500 for all ten motorcycles. That’s a heck of a lot for 10 bikes, but think of the history you’d own.
Plus, there has to be a kilo of…fuel that’s still good within those tanks. Yep, definitely some high-grade old gas…
