A piano company that entered a collapsing industry ten years late, against two hundred rivals, and won a race in its first year.
By Rotarium
A complete marque study of Yamaha. Traces the company from Genichi Kawakami's confidential 1953 directive at Nippon Gakki — the world's largest maker of pianos and organs — through the YA-1 "Red Dragonfly" winning the Mount Fuji Ascent Race months after the company was founded, to Kenny Roberts becoming the first American 500cc world champion and the XT500 winning the first two Paris-Dakar rallies. Covers the RD two-stroke lineage, the five-valve Genesis engine, the EXUP valve, the V-Max, and a 500-unit homologation special. Includes live European market data on thirteen models and the finding that Yamaha's market runs backwards: its highest-scoring machines are its cheapest.