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Suzuki back in MotoGP for 2015

It had been planned for 2014 but it's going to be 2015 instead - that's when Suzuki returns to the manufacturer ranks of MotoGP after quitting the series at the end of 2011 because of The Great Recession. When Suzuki stopped after 37 continuous years of racing, it said it intended to return three years later and it has been in talks with MotoGP's rights holder, Dorna Sports, since last year. No doubt, though, that fan anticipation of the team's return outdoes any dismay at the delay. It will join Yamaha, Honda and Ducati in the premiere league.
Its bike has already been testing in Japan and was with the official MotoGP tribe in Barcelona, Spain on Monday when Suzuki announced its return. It's said the development bike is called the XRH-1, being ridden by official tester Randy de Puniet (who currently races in MotoGP on an Aprilia-based bike with TeamAspar). and after a day of testing de Puniet got the new Suzuki to within seven-tenths of a second of the top time posted by other MotoGP teams. Davide Brivio, who once ran the Fiat-Yamaha team and has been close with Valentino Rossi, will be the team manager.
Speaking of Rossi, The Doctor is back with Fiat-Yamaha after a bad run with Ducati but is only contracted to the end of 2014. Brivio is the man who got Rossi to join Fiat-Yamaha, then got him to Ducati. Until he took the head of Suzuki's works effort, Brivio was working with Rossi's VR46 management company, heading areas like merchandising. The rumormill has already begun its work, with folks wondering if Rossi will head to Suzuki in 2015 if his second stint at Yamaha doesn't prove fruitful before then. Scroll down below for the official press release from Suzuki.

Suzuki Swift gets a motorcycle-inspired wide body for Tokyo Auto Salon

Tokyo Auto Salon is just around the corner, and companies such as Daihatsu and Mitsubishi have announced a slew of impressive custom cars. Suzuki has also announced its custom lineup, which is a bit humble this year at just three. They range from the wild Suzuki Swift Sport Katana to the mild Hustler Street Base. The Swift is the most impressive of Suzuki's show cars. Its name, and supposedly its looks, are based on the Katana sports bike. We're not sure they have that much in common beyond the silver and red paint job, but that's all right because this Swift still looks excellent. It features aggressive fender flares and a reworked front fascia. Bigger, wider wheels fit underneath those flares, and it has side-exit exhaust to cap off the extreme design. Next up is the Suzuki Jimny Sierra Marine Edition. Suzuki started with the wider Jimny Sierra model and fitted it with equipment for a day in and around the water. It has storage for fishing rods on either side and an interior covered in wetsuit material. The roof has been raised for extra interior space. The exterior also gets a garnish of visual upgrades such as custom wheels, chrome trim, paint scheme, auxiliary lights and tow rings. The third and final custom vehicle is the Hustler Street Base. It's fairly basic with a matte gray paint scheme, a few decals, and an upgraded audio system inside with some flashy lighting. Apparently it's designed for hip young people who live in the city and might be interested in extreme sports and an active lifestyle. Related Video:    

Junkyard Gem: 2005 Suzuki Verona

The ways of the far-flung GM Empire could be mysterious, a couple of decades back, especially when Daewoo and/or Suzuki were involved. After The General's (relative) success selling the Daewoo LeMans with Pontiac badges here, Daewoo decided to bring three models to the United States with its own badging: the Lanos, Nubira and Leganza. Unfortunately for that effort, Daewoo's CEO fled South Korea to evade embezzlement and fraud charges just as the first models hit American showrooms in 1999, and the company went bankrupt soon after. The last year for the trio of Daewoo-badged models here was 2002… but we weren't done with those cars yet! Today's Junkyard Gem is an example of the next-generation Leganza, found in a Denver-area self-service wrecking yard recently. GM began selling Suzuki cars in North America with the Chevrolet Sprint (aka Suzuki Cultus) in 1985. The following year, Suzuki began importing the Jimny with Suzuki Samurai badging. Many Suzukis followed over the next quarter-century, with Chevrolet, Geo and Suzuki branding applied along the way. Since GM bought all of Daewoo's car-building operations during the chaos of the early 2000s, it made sense to keep selling the descendants of the three Daewoo models that had been offered here. They'd have made sense as Geos, but the Geo brand got the axe after 1997. Saturn? For Opels, sure, but not Daewoos. Isuzu had gone all-truck here after the final Styluses and Storms left the showrooms as 1993 models (though the Honda Odyssey was sold here with Isuzu emblems), so that was out. So, Chevrolet and Suzuki got the honors. The next-generation Daewoo Lanos subcompact became the Chevrolet Aveo, the next-generation Daewoo Nubira compact became the Suzuki Reno, and the next-generation Daewoo Leganza midsize sedan became the Suzuki Verona. The Verona was available for just the 2004 through 2006 model years. Note that the dealership decal features the Pets.com Sock Puppet. That's because the now-defunct 1-800-Bar-None company bought the rights to the Sock Puppet in 2002 (two years after Pets.com went kerblooey as the highest-profile casualty of the Dot-Com Crash) and used it in their advertising. All Leganzas had four-cylinder engines driving the front wheels, but the Verona got this very unusual longitudinally-mounted straight-six rig. It thus joins the Volvo S80 in the elite club for this powertrain setup.