I was led to believe that the original wire-wheeled/spoked Kats from 1981/2 were created by a NZ Suzuki dealer for the sole purpose to compete in the Wanganui street races (20 or so made). Apparently, this isn't quite correct ... as the SXZ Katanas were ALL built in Japan!! Not too sure yet on how many were made nor imported into Australia/NZ but the apparent folklore surrounding the actual build location is interesting.

As Production Racing was big in Oceania at the time, the Japanese factory produced the SXZ for budding and proven racers both in Australia and New Zealand (so yes, as a Kat model, they are still special!).

There might have been of course (and, please, info if you have it), tuners in NZ who modified original SXZs for Wanganui but my sources so far have indicated that they were not actually BUILT in NZ (unlike those oh-so-special and lucious McIntosh's of Roger Freeth et al with the GS donks).

Insofar as the supposed 'bathurst' specific Katanas go - these were few (i.e. never a 'batch' per se) and were the sole product of individuals/replicas who wanted to race them - unless they got their hands on a Jap made SXZ of course ... People like Mick Hone and Robbie "Mr Superbike" Phillis rode them (the latter referring these days to the Kats that he raced back then as 'those Katanas' - so they left an impression with him at least!)

Hence it would appear that the 'bathurst/NZ' Katanas were more a reflection on where they were intended to be raced rather than a 'special' build for those races (although it sounds good in concept! ). Although having said that, it's obvious that the SXZ Kats were built as race bikes to be raced.

As an aside, what seems today as funky rim sizes was THE combination to run back then as all racing rubber was of 18" plus and 17" tyres were restricted to road bikes only (backflip in today's terms). It is apparent though that some racers swapped the 19"x1.85" front rim for the 18"x2.5" rear and used a larger rim again for the rear (specs TBA).

There are still gaps and as I find out more - will post under this thread. I have a few calls to make next week to ex-Katana racers of the period for more dirt/info/goss.

"Greg_in_Oz" wrote:
Actually, it was a result of the rules of the Castrol 6 Hour production race. To be eligible for homologation as a production bike, 200 units had to be sold/imported etc. h*nda did it with the first CB1100RB models, too. The rest of the world got the big touring fairing and passenger seat etc. The bikes that hit Oz (I had one) had a hand laid fibreglass, single seat/tail unit and no fairing. They were also imported fully assembled by the race dept in a mini-container unlike normal production bikes of the time which were assembled at the warehouse.The following year, the organisers made single seat bikes ineligible so h*nda put the detachable seat cover on the CB1100RC.
So to answer your question on numbers of wire wheel Kats, I'd say 200 or so would be a good bet.