Suzuki’s sustainable superbike
Japanese firm back on track with greener GSX-R1000R for Suzuka
Suzuki shocked global motorsport fans in July 2022 by announcing that they were pulling out of both MotoGP and the Endurance World Championship at the end of the season to focus more on sustainability, despite winning both titles since 2020.
“One of the reasons was to reinvest in carbon neutrality,” MCN was told at the time by Motorcycling Marketing Group Manager for Europe, North America and Oceania, Nobuo Fujii.
“Carbon neutrality is not only electrification. At the moment, Suzuki is considering various possibilities, depending on the engine capacity.”
Guess who’s back
This stance has now led to Suzuki returning to endurance racing in an official capacity, entering an experimental GSX-R1000R superbike to the 2024 Suzuka 8 Hours using a number of greener components and a more sustainable blend of fuel.
“I believe this initiative has a very significant meaning to realising carbon neutrality, especially for mid to large displacement motorcycles [for] which we believe that combustion engines will still be needed,” says Motorcycle Operations Executive General Manager, Tsuyoshi Tanaka.
Meet the bike Although the GSX-R1000 range is no longer available in Europe due to tightening emissions regulations, the four-cylinder superbike is still produced for other markets. This special endurance version will run on fuel produced by Elf that contains 40% bio-sourced material. The bike’s fenders will
also be produced using plant-based flax fibres, while bio-sourced base oil will be used in the special Motul engine lubricant.
Elsewhere, the fairings will be made of recycled carbon, and the Bridgestone slicks use a larger quantity of recycled and recyclable material in their construction.
A special exhaust is also being built by long-time partners Yoshimura, which will feature a catalyst to absorb some of the engine pollutants.
Why now?
“The main focus is not to return to factory racing activities. The theme is the challenge to become carbon neutral and the main purpose is the experiment,” Motorcycle Operations, Marketing, and
‘The theme is the challenge to be carbon neutral’
Product Planning Division Manager, Akira Kyuji, told MCN during an interview following the Suzuka announcement.
“The EWC was selected as an ideal testing ground due to the extreme endurance of the race. In particular, teamwork is important in EWC – so we believe it is ideal for human resource education as well.”
Mr Kyuji continued: “It is very important for Suzuki to try any possibility and all sorts of technologies. So, our challenge in the endurance race, using various carbon-neutral materials such as sustainable fuel and different types of sustainable materials, will serve that direction.
“We also believe that our carbon-neutral challenge in the endurance race will help our team members, consisting of our own employees, grow in experience in the carbon-neutral engineering field and other various tasks.”
At present, the plan is to only run the bike at Suzuka. Many of the parts seen in these images are still in their prototype stage, with the project only commencing around six months ago.
“Most of the sustainable items for this year are newly developed and under-developed,” added former Suzuki MotoGP Project Leader, Shinichi Sahara. “There are still many unknowns regarding their performance. However, these are the challenges that need to be overcome to make this endeavour all worthwhile, and Suzuki will tackle them as a team.
“So far, no major issues have been identified in the tests Suzuki has conducted on individual items. On the other hand, Suzuki thinks that the upcoming tests, which will involve a package combining all the items, will reveal the challenges more clearly.”
As always, this year’s Suzuka 8 Hours will take place at the Suzuka Circuit in Japan and will begin at 11pm BST on July 21.
Mr Kyuji added: “How long are we going to go with this project? Of course we don’t know yet. We need to see the results of the Suzuka 8 Hours, but we want to continue for as long as possible.”