a deal to market Suzuki RG250s and RG500s under
his name, primarily in Canada and Japan. At the
time Wolf was sponsoring a Japanese rider on an
RG500 in Japan and SE Asia, so perhaps the road
bike tie-up was as a result of that. The décor
matched Wolf’s Formula One cars – a rather striking
mixture of dark blue with gold and red highlights.
Even the instruments were finished with dark blue
faces. The bikes were produced in limited numbers
in 1986 and 1987, and is it believed that around
100 of each of the 250 and 500 were built in Wolf
colours. The Japanese scale model company Tamiya
even produced an RG250 Gamma kit in Wolf colours.70 :OLD BIKE AUSTRALASIA
Walterwas born in Graz, Austria, on October 5th,
1939, just in time for WW2. His father, who was half
Slovenian, was conscripted at age 40 into the
German army and sent to the Russian front, where
he was captured and sent to a Russian prison for ten
horrifying years. Mrs Wolf, a Slovene, took her
children to Yugoslavia, where young Walter was
required to contribute to the household coffers by
working whatever jobs he could find. It was 1951
before his father was released from prison, and
when he returned he took the family to West
Germany, and in 1958, to Canada. Walter spoke no
English and claimed he learned the language by
watching Hollywood western movies at the local
cinema. Working first as an elevator repair man and
later as a diver building underwater bridge
foundations, he eventually joined a company that
manufactured and sold marine equipment. Within
a few years, he owned the company.
His core business became the installation of oil
rig platforms all over the world – from Africa to
New Zealand – and soon diversified into trading in
crude oil, where he amassed a fortune. That
bonanza allowed him to indulge his other passion –
motor cars and motor sport. As a penniless 16-year-
old, he had hitch-hiked from Yugoslavia to Monza,
and blagged his way in to watch the Formula One
Grand Prix. The die was cast.
His burgeoning business empire brought with it
helicopters and private jets, and for ground transport
Walter bought a Lamborghini Countach directly from
the factory in Italy. Here he met and befriended Gian
Paolo Dallara, Lamborghini’s chief engineer, and a
man who knew lots about building fast cars. Wolf
entered into an agreement to build a run of special
cars, based on the Countach and marketed as Walter
Wolf Specials. His relationship with Dallara led to him
meeting Frank Williams in 1975, who at that time
was trying to run a Formula One team on a shoe-
string budget and heavily in debt. Wolf agreed to
assist by providing a Cosworth DFV engine, and the
friendship – and the financial involvement – blos-
somed from there. For the 1976 season, the Williams
cars, which had been built from the former Hesketh
cars raced by James Hunt, were entered by Walter
Wolf Racing. They looked smart, in a dark blue livery,
but they were heavy and slow, and even a talent like
Jacky Ickx could not drag one onto the back of the
grid. After a conspicuous lack of results, relations with
Frank Williams soured and Wolf decided to set up his
own team for 1977, pulling Williams team manager
Peter Warr and designer Harvey Postlethwaite, and
hiring South African Jody Scheckter as driver.
The result was something out of a fairy tale. The all-
new Wolf WR1 – a straightforward chassis powered by
the usual Cosworth DFV engine – won its debut race at
the season-opening Argentinian Grand Prix in Buenos
Aires, leaving F1 pundits gobsmacked. And it was no
fluke; Scheckter won two more GPs, in Monaco and –
to Wolf’s delight – in Canada, to claim second place
behind Niki Lauda in the 1977 championship results.
However the next two seasons produced no more
wins, and a disillusioned Wolf sold the team and its
British premises to the Fittipaldi brothers.
Formula One wasn’t Wolf’s only interest in motor
sport. There were Can Am cars as well, and
motorcycles. In the mid ‘eighties, Wolf put togetherWALTER WOLF
SUZUKI RG 250 GAMMA
Jody Scheckter`s Wolf WR1 displaying at Barber Motorsports Park, 2010. LMS/FlickrBELOW The Tamiya model kit of the
Walter Wolf RG250 Gamma.“The RG250 ‘Gamma’
was produced by Suzuki
from March 1983 until
1987 and was highly
successful in the hyper-
competitive Lightweight
(250cc) Production
Racing category.”