Japanese motorcycles from the 80s are considered collectible works of art, like this Kawasaki GPz900R Ninja, a brand new motorcycle that should not exist…
You already know this Ninja 900, without a doubt, the main Top Gun motorcycle that we already talked about at the time in an extensive article, a four-cylinder 903 cc, 100 CV sport tourer from 1984.
It is an icon of modern motorcycles, because it incorporated the first modern four-cylinder inline engine, with liquid cooling, double overhead camshaft, 16 valves, timing chain on one side of the engine and alternator relocated behind the cylinders.
In addition to its aesthetics, its integral fairing -the bike has a Cx coefficient of 0.33- and its excellent performance, it laid the foundations of modernity in the 80s, for which it has earned its place in history.
Therefore, when one of these 900 appears at auction, it is certain that its price will not be low. But what was seen at the last auction in Las Vegas is record-breaking.
This Kawasaki GPz900R Ninja should not exist because it is a pre-series unit, which is destroyed
And it is that a unicorn was put up for maximum bid, a pre-production Kawasaki GPz900R Ninja, the first Ninja in history that has never been registered or driven.
It is a motorcycle that has been standing still for 39 years, its entire life, although it has been seen at the Guggenheim in Bilbao, Orlando, Memphis, Chicago, Las Vegas and in New York in 1998, in the exhibition “The Art of Motorcycle”.
Its odometer only reads 5.8 miles, all of them done by pushing it, while it was moved in the museums -without starting it-.
Until now the bike was owned by John Hoover, a former manager of Kawasaki USA, who has only enjoyed seeing it on the stand during the 31 years he has owned it.
But his story goes further, since the pre-production units are always destroyed, since they are not approved to be registered and less driven, and this Ninja 900 has a pre-production chassis number… How is it possible?
The motorcycle was stored for eight years in the Kawasaki warehouses
The motorcycle, mysteriously, was not destroyed and spent several years in the Kawasaki warehouses in California, until it was found by John Hoover, who was in charge of the firm’s press motorcycle park in the USA.
It’s a bike that was built in Japan and flew to Los Angeles as a show bike at the time of its world launch in 1984, and from there it went to the Kawasaki warehouse.
This fact is curious because the Kawasaki GPz900R Ninja was also made in Nebraska, but this bike flew in from Japan.
Hoover discovered it in 1992 and managed to buy it with some trick -because legally you couldn’t- and he kept it all these years.
The last part of this story is that the bike recently went up for auction in Las Vegas, reaching a record figure for this model, $55,000. Well worth it… And it is a new motorcycle, unused, brand new but 39 years old, although it can never be used on the road…
Everywhere you look, it’s new…
