Sammy Miller Museum buys historic race bike trio from Northern Ireland

Sam Hewitt

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11th April 2018

The Sammy Miller Museum has been very fortunate to purchase three important racing motorcycles from Jim Lilley in Lisburn, Northern Ireland.

They comprise the ex-works Honda NS500 on which Freddie Spencer won numerous GP races in 1982/3, the Suzuki RG500 Mk IV on which Barry Sheene won two world championships, and an ex-works 1959 MZ 125 GP machine that was raced by Mike Hailwood.

Sam tries the 1959 125cc MZ Grand Prix machine once raced by Mike Hailwood for size, flanked by the ex-works Honda NS500 and Suzuki RG500 Mk IV that were also recently purchased for the Sammy Miller Museum.

Back then, the former East Germany led the world in two-stroke design, and the MZ’s creator was the two-stroke genius Walter Kaaden, who worked with Wernher von Braun on the German rocket programme before turning to the development of two-stroke exhaust systems.

Each machine has its own race spares kit, and the exotic trio is now on display in the Racing Gallery at the New Milton museum.

Read more News and Features in the April 2018 issue of OBM – on sale now!