Classic Racer

Classic Racer takes you so close you can actually smell the Castrol R. With the world's finest archive, and an editorial team who live and breathe the sport, the only way you'll get closer will be to put on your leathers.

Classic Racer

Radio TT!

Sheene 1975

Wild Boys!

S100 CLOTHING CARE KIT WORTH £69.95 • Put your racing knowledge to the test and complete the puzzle to be in with a chance of winning this great prize. Good luck!

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Paddock Gossip

Whatever happened to? HERMANN PAUL MÜLLER • From prewar racer to Luftwaffe engineer, world champion and record-breaker, Hermann Paul Müller led a very interesting life and career.

LABOUR OF LOVE • To make a beautiful butterfly emerge from the Chrysalis BMW F650 which has been languishing for more than 20 years, took grit, determination and a whole lot of love from Neil Morris and his closest friends.

SHOOTING STAR! • Production racing was the best way of ‘winning on one day’ and ‘selling on Monday’, and during the 1950s and 60s the best way to do this was in endurance production races. Alan Cathcart rides a bike which was up there battling with the best of the time: the 1957 Royal Enfield Super Meteor 700.

1967 HONDA RC181

BEST OF BOTH WORLDS • Not many riders have stood on the top of the podium in both the World Superbike championship and in 500cc Grand Prix/MotoGP racing. Will any on this list surprise you? And who do we rate as the best?

1975 SUZUKI XR11 TR750 • Formula 750 was a basic but very potent mix of variables: build a race bike based on a production model, tune it up, change the chassis to cope, and then go racing. Suzuki started with the bloated touring GT750 Kettle: a water-cooled three-cylinder two-stroke that weighed in at a hefty 236 kilos! And with less than 70bhp available from the standard road bike power unit, a lot of work would be needed to turn this portly machine into a racing machine. But Suzuki did it…

MASTERFUL MEZ • If titles were decided by popularity, Phil ‘Mez’ Mellor would have been a multiple world champion. Classic Racer pays tribute to the hugely talented and much-missed Yorkshireman.

HONDA WAY OUT • In the second part of our series, Jack Valentine talks Classic Racer through V&M’s years with Honda Britain before they parted company, and their incredible success at the TT with David Jefferies and the Yamaha R1.

FZR HURRAH! • Classic Racer friends Tony and Claire Greenslade run Gibson/Allspeed exhausts in Essex. Following on from a successful 2024, they’re looking forward to 2025. They have a Supersport 600 Honda, but ever the loyal Yam man, Tony wants to build an FZR…

Fred Clarke • In his regular column for Classic Racer, Fred Clarke – for more than 50 years the voice of British motorcycle racing – takes us back in time for some (often fun) recollections!

THE GREEN PARTY • No, we’re not making a political statement, but we do want to give you the stories behind why Kawasaki went green, where and when the term ‘Ninja’ was coined, and why Rob Muzzy is important in classic Kwak circles.

Back in the Day • Welcome to ‘Back in the Day’. We want to see all your old photographs from way-back-when. They could be of you racing, or perhaps you meeting your racing idol – or maybe just snaps you’ve taken at a race event from yesteryear: do be mindful of copyright! Send them to: BSimmonds@mortons.co.uk

PULL UP A CHAIR… • This is a call to arms – the CRMC wants YOU to get involved in probably the friendliest classic race class of them all: sidecars!