# Yamaha TZ500

- Source: https://racingcarnetwork.com/wiki/yamaha-tz500/
- Publisher: Racing Car Network (racingcarnetwork.com), the race car marketplace
- Type: bike · Brand: Yamaha
- Discipline: bikes
- Series: classic-gp
- Era: 1980s
- Last updated: 2026-07-06
- For sale on RCN: https://racingcarnetwork.com/for-sale/yamaha-tz500/ (0 live listings right now)

The Yamaha TZ500 is the customer 500's brief blaze: the square-four production Grand Prix bike of 1980-83 that put privateers in the premier class — rare then, coveted now, classic racing's blue-riband two-stroke.

## Specifications

| Spec | Value |
|---|---|
| Engine | 500cc two-stroke square four |
| Power | ~110-120 hp (customer trim) |
| Weight | ~135 kg dry |
| Gearbox | 6-speed |
| Architecture | Works YZR lineage, customer build |
| Rarity | Brief limited production 1980-83 |
| Years | 1980–1983 |
| Class | 500 GP customer (classic blue-riband) |

## History

Yamaha extended the TZ formula to the premier class for a brief, brilliant window: the TZ500 (1980) productised the works YZR500's square-four architecture for customers — the liquid-cooled two-stroke four in customer trim, evolving through the model's short generations (J-and-kin designations through 1983) as the 500 grids' privateer infrastructure during the class's most romantic era: the Roberts-Sheene-Lucchinelli years' independent teams running TZ500s behind the works rows, scoring the points that kept championship grids full.

Production stayed genuinely limited — the 500's costs bounded its market as the 250's never were — making the TZ500 rare in period and rarer now: the model's brief run ended as Yamaha's customer strategy shifted, leaving a survivor population classic racing treats as aristocracy.

The present market is blue-riband classic GP: TZ500s headline classic grids and parades (period 500 two-strokes being the demonstrations crowds come for), provenance forensics rule (genuine machines against replica-and-bitsa constructions — the customer 500's value inviting both), and the ownership canon scales the TZ250's discipline to four cylinders' worth of cranks.

## Palmarès

Premier-class points and privateer campaigns through the 1980-83 window — the customer 500's role in the era's championship grids — and today's classic GP headline status: the blue-riband two-stroke of revival paddocks.

## What to check before you buy

Provenance forensics at aristocracy stakes: genuine TZ500 identity (frame and engine numbers against the limited production's records — the model's rarity invites replicas and bitsa builds; both exist honestly and dishonestly) is the purchase's foundation. Then the four-cylinder arithmetic: crank condition and rebuild evidence across the square four, cylinder-and-piston correctness per year (generational parts differences the TZ literacy tracks), expansion-chamber originality. Classic-event eligibility papers and the model's demonstration demand structure value. Budget the TZ250's covenant times two — and buy the documentation before the bike.

## Did you know

- The square four was the works YZR's architecture productised — customers buying the premier class's layout with a parts book.
- Production rarity was the 500 economy's arithmetic: premier-class costs bounded the customer market the 250 never knew.
- Classic paddocks treat running TZ500s as headline acts — the 500 two-stroke demonstration being what revival crowds actually come for.

## Related entries

- Yamaha TZ250 — https://racingcarnetwork.com/wiki/yamaha-tz250/
- Suzuki RG500 (GP) — https://racingcarnetwork.com/wiki/suzuki-rg500-gp/
- Matchless G50 — https://racingcarnetwork.com/wiki/matchless-g50/
- Kawasaki Z1 (superbike) — https://racingcarnetwork.com/wiki/kawasaki-z1-superbike/