Yamaha Motor Corporation encyclopedia topics

Yamaha Motor Corporation - 2 reference results

a Japanese motorized vehicle-producing company (whose HQ is at 2500 Shingai, Iwata, Shizuoka), is part of the Yamaha Corporation. After expanding Yamaha Corporation into the world's biggest piano maker, then Yamaha CEO Genichi Kawakami took Yamaha into the field of motorized vehicles on July 1, 1955. The company's intensive research into metal alloys for use in acoustic pianos had given Yamaha wide knowledge of the making of lightweight, yet sturdy and reliable metal constructions. This knowledge was easily applied to the making of metal frames and motor parts for motorcycles. Yamaha Motor is the world's second largest producer of motorcycles (after Honda). It also produces many other motorized vehicles such as all-terrain vehicles, boats, snowmobiles, outboard motors, and personal watercraft.

The Yamaha corporate logo is comprised of three tuning forks placed on top of each other in a triangular pattern.

In 2000, Toyota and Yamaha Corporation made a capital alliance where Toyota paid Yamaha Corporation 10.5 billion yen for a 5 per cent share in Yamaha Motor Company while Yamaha and Yamaha Motor each bought 500,000 shares of Toyota stock in return.

Racing heritage

Yamaha has a long racing heritage where it has had its machines and team win many different competitions in many different areas, particulary in motorcycle racing. Yamaha has had great success with riders such as Bob Hannah, Heikki Mikkola, Kenny Roberts, Chad Reed, Jeremy McGrath, Stefan Merriman, Wayne Rainey, and currently, Valentino Rossi. Yamaha has won a total of 35 World Championships, including 3 in MotoGP and 9 in the preceding 500cc 2-stroke class.

Yamaha created the innovations which lead to the modern motocross bike, as they were the first to build a production mono-shock motocross bike (1975 for 250 and 400, 1976 for 125) and one of the first to have a water-cooled motocross production bike (1977 in works bikes, 1981 in off-the-shelf bikes).

Since 1962 Yamaha produced production road racing grand prix motorcycles that any licensed road racer could purchase. In 1970, non-factory "privateer" teams dominated the 250cc World Championship with Great Britain’s Rodney Gould winning the title on a Yamaha TD2.

The company also produced Formula One engines from 1989 to 1997, initially for the Zakspeed team and later for Tyrrell. These never won a race, but drivers including Andrea de Cesaris and Mark Blundell scored some good results with them.

Motorcycle models

Yamaha has made an extensive number of two- and four-stroke scooters, on-road and off-road motorcycles. The Yamaha XS 650, introduced in 1970, was an early success.

Electrical vehicles

Motorcycles

Mopeds

Golf carts

Yamaha G1
Yamaha Drive

Personal Watercraft

WaveRunner

Wheelchairs

JW Active
JW-IB
Nesquick sponsored Race chair

Wheelchair upgrade parts

JWX-1
JW-II
JW-I
Wetard chair 85

All-Terrain Vehicles

BW80 / 200 / 350
YFZ450
Raptor 80 / 250 / 350 / 660 / 700
Blaster 200
Banshee 350
Warrior 350
Bruin 350
Kodiak 400 / 450
Grizzly 80 / 125 / 350 / 400 / 450 / 550 / 600 / 660 / 700
Big Bear 400
Wolverine 350 / 450
Tri-Z 250

Snowmobiles

Yamaha has recently claimed a 100% four-stroke snowmobile line-up, making them the only snowmobile manufacturer to do so. In Canada though, there are still three models that Yamaha manufactures that are still 2 stroke. They are the Bravo, VK 540 and the Venture XL. Yamaha had introduced four-strokes to their line-up in 2003 and the line-up became four-stroke based for model year 2005. Many say that Yamaha has proven snowmobiles can be clean, efficient, and reliable all while maintaining strong performance. The RX-1 released in 2003 was the first performance-oriented four-stroke snowmobile to ever hit the market. It was not, however, the first modern four-stroke snowmobile produced. That honor belongs to Arctic Cat for their Yellowstone Special, released in 2000, which was designed as a rental sled that could meet Yellowstone National Park's stringent emission requirement. However, the Yamaha received much criticism for its weight disadvantage when compared to similar two-strokes, despite its excellent fuel economy and low-range torque. Yamaha is now on the cutting edge of four-stroke technology with the introducing of their 80FI engine which is equipped on the Phazer and Venture Lite models. This engine has one of the highest specific output of any four-stroke in production, with 160 HP/L, Yamaha achieves this even without the use of a forced induction system. Yamaha is also a key player in the "four-stroke wars", which are a series of advertisements from opponent Ski-Doo who claim their 2-tec and power-tek equipped two-strokes are still cleaner and more efficient than four-strokes, while Yamaha still claims the four-strokes are cleaner. Yamaha also broke a multi-year absence from sno-cross in the winter of 2006-07 with their introduction of a factory race team headed by former Arctic Cat racer Robbie Malinoski.

Current line-up

Bravo
Apex
Attack
Nytro
FX Nytro
Phazer (4th Generation)
RS Rage
RS Vector
RS Venture
VK Professional

Significant previously produced models

Bravo
coRy
Enticer

Exciter
Phazer (1st-3rd Generations)
Mountain Max
RX-1
SnoScoot
Sno Sport
SRV 540
SRX
SRX 440
SX R
SX Viper/Venom
Venture
VK 540
VMAX
VMAX SX
Vmax
Vmax-4

Snowblowers

YT-600E
YT-600ED
YT-660EDJ
YS-870
YS-870J
YS-1070
YT-1080ED
YT-1080EX
YT-1290EX
YT-1290EXR
YS-1390A
YS-1390AR
YAMAHA-R15

Remote-controlled helicopters

Outboard motors

4 stroke series
4 stroke jet drive series
2 stroke V6
2 stroke portable / mid range
Full list

Kart engines

KT series 2 stroke

KT100SD
KT100SC
KT100SEC
KT100SP
KT100J
KT100AX
KT100A2

Other vehicles

Yamaha has also built engines for other manufacturers' vehicles, most notably the V-6 and V-8 engine for the Ford Taurus SHO. The Volvo XC90 uses a larger version of the same Yamaha V-8 engine. They also built Formula One racing engines from the late 1980s to the mid 1990s, with little on track success. In 1991, Yamaha developed its F1 engined supercar called the OX99-11 where two drivers sit in tandem in front of the engine, but the project was canned due to the world recession and lack of interest.

Yamaha also tunes engines for other manufacturers, Toyota being one of them. Yamaha logos are, for instance, found on the Toyota S engines. as well as the 2ZZ-GE utilized by Toyota, Pontiac, and Lotus.

Yamaha developed a prototype for a two-seater sports car with help of Albrecht Goertz. While the Yamaha/Nissan partnership never progressed beyond the prototype stage, Toyota took up the design and released the Toyota 2000GT.

Yamaha is also one of the big 4 companies in the Personal water craft market.