John Nutting on the legendary Kwak racers.
Big four-cylinder Kawasakis were raced with success in the Seventies and Eighties when they were fitted into Peckett & Mcnab frames. Two of the originals are being restored to their former glory.
Featured here, this big Kawasaki not only looks the business but has a strong racing history. It’s one of a number of highly-respected racing bikes that were built by Peckett & Mcnab for the new British Formula 1 series 40 years ago, but is worthy of note because it started the 1978 Isle of Man TT F1 race ridden by Ian Richards alongside ‘that’ Ducati of Mike Hailwood. While Hailwood raced to his legendary comeback victory, there’s a little-known sub-plot in which Peckett & Mcnab machines played their part. Up-and-coming Richards finished third despite getting oil on his rear tyre, two seconds behind the works 888cc Honda of John Williams. But Tom Herron had been challenging for the lead on his Peckett & Mcnab Honda until a rear shock mount failed. Had Herron won, history might have been very different. Ian Richards recalls: “The first time I’d sat on the P&M Kawasaki was at the start of practice and although I did only a few practice laps, in the race the bike ran great for the whole six laps and it was brilliant to finish on the rostrum with Hailwood.” The start of that TT F1 race was recreated at this year’s Classic TT when Richards again rode the same Peckett & Mcnab Kawasaki, now restored to almost its original condition, in the August Bank Holiday parade lap of the Mountain Circuit. Another arguably more celebrated Peckett & Mcnab Kawasaki is also in the process of restoration. It’s the bike raced by John Cowie in European endurance races and to win the first British Formula 1 championship in 1978. Kawasaki’s road bikes had been maligned for poor handling in the early 70s, but the emerging Superbike racing class in America provided an opportunity for tuners to make chassis improvements.
By 1978, Formula 750 racing had become dominated by Yamaha’s TZ750 two-strokes, but the big hairy 1000cc Superbikes were exotic and created larger-than-life heroes such as Wes Cooley, Steve Mclaughlin, Freddie Spencer and Eddie Lawson, who were locked in a battle that enthralled enthusiasts on both sides of the Atlantic. In Europe, endurance racing provided a chance for the big four-strokes to shine, but there was still no open-racing class for them. The removal of the Isle of Man TT from the world road-racing series in 1976 was the catalyst. To enable the Island to retain some international status, new classes were created and the TT Formula world championships were born. Crucially, the classes were for tuned road-bike engines in a proper racing chassis. In 1977, the inaugural TT Formula 1 race was won by Phil Read, for his eighth and final world title, on a works-entered Honda four. That Isle of Man TT F1 race provided the impetus for the following year’s British Formula 1 series, and Richard Peckett and Peter Mcnab were well poised to support riders who were looking for a good racing chassis. Former carpenter Richard and engineering graduate Peter had acquired their frame-making and engine tuning skills while working in the early 1970s at Dresda Autos in Isleworth, which was run by Dave Degens, an ace rider both on the home short tracks and in endurance events. Further experience for Richard and Peter came with a deal to make frames for Norman Miles, who had acquired the jigs from Rob North that had been used for the factory Triumph and BSA triples. That didn’t work out, so the pair decided to set up Peckett & Mcnab at the end of 1975. Richard recalls: “Over Christmas 1975 on the dining-room table I drew up the first P&M frame, which was for a single-cam Honda. I’d taken the frame jig I’d made while I was at Dresda’s and we made the bike with hardly any equipment.” His second frame was for a BMW followed in 1977 by a revised frame for another single-cam Honda. “This was how we ended up with the P&M design,” says Richard. That bike, #4, was raced by Asa Moyce for the first Isle of Man TT Formula 1 race in 1977. “At the end of 1977 there was a Formula 1 race at Brands Hatch,” he says. “Asa borrowed #4. We lent the first bike with a Honda to Mocheck for Tony Rutter to ride. I’d built another Kawasaki, #6, and John Cowie rode the other Honda. So we had four P&MS in the race. When they decided there was going to be a Formula 1 series in 1978 a lot of people expressed interest in our chassis so we went down to Brands and a few people had test rides on the bike and on the strength of that we sold five more.” John Cowie and Bernie Toleman had been racing Gus Kuhn BMWS in endurance races and at the end of 1977 tried Richard’s P&M at the Mettet 1000km race. “They were pushing the works Hondas until a piston broke but they saw the potential,” says Richard, himself a pretty good racer. Peter Mcnab crafted a new frame – #17, which is now being restored in a complete bike – in 17-gauge T45 steel tubing with bronze welding. Geometry continued to be similar to the later North frames with a 62-degree head angle and substantial bracing for the head and swingarm mounts. Tuning experience was applied to the Kawasaki in