Happy 40th birthday, GSX-R! Suzuki’s iconic sport bike debuted in 1985 with the GSX-R750, and the unbroken production run of fully faired four-cylinder repli-racers continues to this day with the 2025 GSX-R600, GSX-R750, and GSX-R1000.

Examples of these iconic motorcycles are displayed throughout the museum. Many visitors will remember that first- and second-generation GSX-R750s and GSX-R1100s relied on a combination of air and oil to cool their compact, lightweight power plants.

“Think of the oil system as a necessary supplement, a way of getting heat out of places that vexed air-cooled engines’ designers, namely the top of the combustion chamber,” wrote Marc Cook in his excellent 2005 book, “Suzuki GSX-R: A Legacy of Performance.”

Even the color of the engine was intentionally selected to keep the potent package as cool as possible. “The gunmetal gray finish was chosen because it best rejected the heat,” explained Cook. “No thermal stone was left unturned.”

Following the press introduction for the 2011 GSX-R600 and GSX-R750 models at Barber Motorsports Park, American Suzuki donated the first U.S.-spec 2011 GSX-R750 to the museum, where it remains in the permanent collection.

Photos by Joe Avila

#BarberMuseum #BarberMotorsportsPark #Suzuki #GSXR ...

It’s National Beatles Day! 🎸🚙

We’re celebrating today with one of our favorite pieces of history from the collection. The one-and-only 1956 S-1 Saloon Bentley, originally belonging to Joe “Dandie” Crittle and an extraordinary piece of artistic history
decked out in kaleidoscopic colors inspired by Crittle’s iconic Dandie Fashions shop in the Chelsea District of London.

Crittle was a designer and clothing supplier for Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, David Bowie, The Who, The Rolling Stones, and of course, The Beatles. The Beatles became good friends with “Dandie” and a deal was struck between The Beatles’ Apple Corporation and Crittle’s fashion shop. The result? The fashion store was acquired along with this 1956 Bentley S1 Saloon “party car” designed for cruising from homes to clubs and the shop.

DID YOU KNOW!? 222 APL (as seen on the car tag) was the address of the fashion store where it was parked, owned by Apple Records, which was The Beatles’ record label at the time. 🤔

Come see it for yourself at the Barber Museum! ...

Did you know four of the first five motorcycles that George Barber purchased for what would in time become the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum were Hondas? Three of those were V-fours: a 1986 VF1000R, an ’86 VFR750F, and an ’86 VF500F. The fourth Honda was an ’88 Hurricane 1000, which, of course, was powered by an inline-four.

Introduced to the U.S. market in 1985, the swoopy, tricolor VF1000R bore more than a passing resemblance to European endurance road racers. That open-class machine was notable because it was the first Honda street bike with gear-driven camshafts, the advantages being reduced friction and more precise valve timing.

Cycle World magazine called the VF500F “a backroad dancer with a 12,000-rpm heart of gold.” About the VFR750F, which won three-consecutive AMA Superbike titles, editors wrote, “The VFR handles as effortlessly as it accelerates, with that much-sought-after combination of quickness and stability that puts a rider at ease.”

The fifth motorcycle purchased by Barber, the Hurricane 1000, was known overseas as the CBR1000F. Similar to its popular middleweight sibling of the same period, the Hurricane was completely encapsulated in plastic bodywork. Even the fork legs and mufflers didn’t escape the molded treatment.

And the fourth motorcycle purchased by Barber? Like the VFR750F, VF500F, and Hurricane 1000, it was a Cycle World “Ten Best” winner, a 1988 Kawasaki ZX-10R. But that’s a story for another day.

Photos by Joe Avila

#BarberMuseum #BarberMotorsportsPark #Honda #motorcycle ...

In celebration of 75 years of Formula One competition, the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum has embarked on its most ambitious automotive project to date, the meticulous recreation of Lotus Type 49 chassis No. 1.

One of the most important racing machines of all time, the Type 49/R1 was an extraordinary collaboration between four of the greatest minds in F1 history: Colin Chapman and Maurice Philippe of Team Lotus, and Mike Costin and Keith Duckworth of Cosworth.

Barber has commissioned Classic Team Lotus, headed by Chapman’s son, Clive, to recreate the Type 49/R1 using the original design drawings and incorporating period components for a fitting 60th-anniversary celebration of this visionary machine.

“This isn’t a restoration, it’s a resurrection of one of the greatest racing machines ever built, guided by the very hands that carry on Colin Chapman’s legacy,” said George Barber, founder of the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum.

#BarberMuseum #BarberMotorsportsPark #Lotus #ColinChapman #FormulaOne ...