RGV's have been raced since 1988 When the original RGV250J was released. They were an immediate success against the opposition of the day, namely the Kawasaki KR1 and the Yamaha TZR. The release of the KR1-S brought it close to the first models of the RGV, but Suzuki gained the upper hand again with the RGV250M model which included an SP model with close ratio gearbox and dry clutch. They also released a Race kit  for them to bring the standard 55hp bike up to 70hp. This started the Suzuki dominance of the 250 two stroke racing, only challenged when Aprillia brought out the RS250 that had the RGV engine in it. Although not much faster engine wise the chassis is better with better suspension. On the fully kitted race bikes that had sorted suspensions the Aprillia does not have much of an advantage. There have been other Japanese models released but none officially imported so have not really had the back up to be successful on the race track. These included the Honda NSR250 and the later version of the Yamaha TZR250 which were both V-twins but restricted to 45hp for the Japanese market. They would both out handle the older RGVs but need a lot of work to get decent horsepower. Unfortunately the Supersport 400 class allows the 400 fourstroke bikes like the ZXR Kawasaki and the FZR Yamaha which have started to dominate the class. The last new 250s to be released were the 1996 RGV250T and V unrestricted model, these are different bikes altogether from the old RGV. The T is restricted to 45hp and the V is the unrestricted Hong Kong model but the chassis is basically a GP bike. Suzuki do a couple of race kits for this model which is why I decided to go for one to race in Britain in 2000 as I think I will be able to compete with anything in the class on this bike. It will still have a power disadvantage on the 400's but the handling should make up for this. The race kits are only available in Japan though and this is where my contacts come in handy to get parts direct from Japan.