Suzuki to revive the Katana on October 2; could feature a turbocharged engine

With the third teaser released for the upcoming Suzuki Katana, Suzuki Motors has confirmed the launch for October 2 and while the first two teasers revealed close to nothing, the third shows us a part of the tank for the upcoming bike.

Rumours and leaked documents from the United States Patent and Trademark Office spoke of Suzuki filing an application for the name Katana along a Japanese character and a sword logo that suggest a revival of the nameplate from the 1980s.

The tank revealed in the trailer bears a striking resemblance to the Katana concept bike displayed at the 2017 EICMA motor show. However the concept on display was not entirely designed by Suzuki but a restyled GSX-S1000 commissioned by Italian motorcycle magazine Motociclismo.

A Suzuki Katana GSX250 SS (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

A little history lesson here: The first Katana was conceptualized in 1979 and designed by the German company Target Design for Suzuki. It was a semi-faired sport-tourer in operation till 2006 and came in 550cc, 650cc, 750cc and 1100cc variants.

A 2006 model of the Suzuki Katana (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

There is no word on what the future Katana will sport in terms of a powertrain, but rumour has it the Katana will come with a turbocharged parallel twin. The rumour mills also suggest that the factory title for the bike is the GSX700T, so maybe it will be fitted with a turbocharged 700cc parallel twin?

For now, here’s the latest teaser for the Katana: