Kawasaki Race Car Body
Several years ago, I wrote about Kawasaki's 1972 factory effort to get into auto racing. It was a very hands on effort, Harvey Aschenbrenner pretty much single handedly built a chassis, fitted a 440cc snowmobile engine, adapted a motorcycle transmission, then sketched a fiberglass body designed to look something like a smaller version of the then popular Can Am cars. He built the foam plug for the body and had a local fiberglass company build it.
The car was built but while still in the very early stages of development, Harvey was asked to get involved in some other projects and the race car project died. He lost track of the car and that was pretty much that.
Well, the body has been sitting for some time in southern California and it's now up for sale on eBay. The owner found it in Sacramento, leaning up against a garage. No chassis or drivetrain, just the body. Makes a person think, if the body (or most of it) is still around, maybe the chassis is, too.
I see, now, there actually were a few comments on the original story in the last month or so by some folks who knew of the body's location and one by the current owner.
If someone at Kawasaki was on the ball, they might want to scoop this up as an interesting bit of Kawasaki history and see if they could turn up the chassis. Sometimes, things are hidden in plain sight. So, who has the chassis?
Thanks Paul, for the tip!
Link: Kawasaki race car body
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{ 2 comments… add yours below ... }
Kawasaki racecar? A little suprising, until you consider that you’re talking about a multi-billion dollar company that builds everything from boats to bikes. But to find it leaning against a garage? That’s the suprising part. Nice peice, though.
Doesn’t fiberglass degrade over time, especially sitting in the sun? I hear people with Tracy bodywork on bikes from the 70’s dealing with leaks and cracks more than anything.
Still and all, cool concept, heck reproduce it for fun/profit for collectors. Oh and Kwak makes heavy construction equipment, also (Kawasaki Heavy Industries, ya know…)
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