1972 Kawasaki S2

This may be the fastest tiddler of all time, at least in a straight line. Here is a brief history to refresh your memory of the good old days of two-stroke screamers with drum front brakes. Kawasaki was late to the party in the USA in the mid-'60's, but the company did not waste much time trying to lasso the ultimate high performance crown and keep it away from its competitors. Honda built wonderfully reliable, but heavy, four-strokes, Suzuki built models with a lot of style and flash for the money, and Yamaha built the best handlers. This left Kaw in control of the whole corral of straight-line acceleration kings.

The performance image began with the 250 Samurai and 350 Avenger twins, accelerated like a banshee with the H-1/Blue Streak/Mach III in '69, and blew everybody in the weeds with its H-2 in 1972, before double-overhead-camming Honda into the pavement with its Z-1 the following year. The first Mach III's were supposed to have been called Blue Streaks, but I think the name was changed to the more aggressive moniker for the U. S. market at the last minute. We all know how the white-with-blue-stripes model morphed into the unusual metallic charcoal color before becoming red with white stripes. The last Mach III of the original specifications was sold in '71 in blue with laser stripes on the tank and side covers.

Nineteen-seventy-two brought a number of changes to the Kaw corral. The big news, of course, was the 750 H-2 with its blisteringly blue speed. The company began to monkey with the H-1, giving it a yucky orange color and a choice of CDI and drum front brake or points and a new disc front stopper, either offered at the same price. Kawasaki introduced the new little brother S2 that same year. Except for the overly complex, heavy, and pokey (for a Kaw Triple) S1 250, the 350 S2 is and was probably the most ignored of all the legendary Triples. The S2 was built only a couple of years before being updated and replaced with the smoother (and more boring) KH400, which surprisingly stayed in the line for several years and sold quite well.

I have always been a fan of the Kaw Triples, and I owned a '71 H-1 for nearly twenty years. This friend of mine who I was associated with in the early Seventies could tell you some good stories about the 1972 S2. This guy was a hobby racer and employed as a mechanic at a Honda/Kawasaki dealership back in '72. He bought the first S2 as soon as it hit the dealership, and he claimed it was actually faster than the H-1, which I always doubted just a bit. He was particularly impressed with the ridiculous degree of wheelie-bility the S2 had. I suspect that was due to its 52-inch wheelbase in relation to the H-1's 55. He did not own that S2 for very long. He tended to crash it repeatedly in a very short space of time. In case you are wondering why I never met him on a drag strip, either officially or unofficially, it was because I did not purchase my H-1 until several years later as a used model. I was still in love with my CL-350 at the time, but that's another story. Anyway, my buddy eventually gave up the straight-line speed demon for the better handling qualities of a Yamaha RD-350. He went on to race Yamaha 350's in endurance competition for many years after that. The very last time I saw him was when he came to Texas to uphold his title as the #1 national 350-class endurance racer.

See also: 1964 Omega Sports Special 125