Founded in 1909 to build weaving looms for Japan’s then-booming silk industry, Suzuki diversified into vehicle production starting in the 1960s. Its first vehicles were small automobiles and the company has since become one of the world’s largest carmakers, but aside from small off-roaders like the Jimny (known as the Samurai in the U.S.), most enthusiasts know Suzuki for its fast motorcycles. After making small, cheap motorized bicycles during the immediate postwar years, Suzuki built progressively larger and more advanced motorcycles, eventually racing them at the international level beginning in the 1960s. Suzuki’s advanced Katana of the early 1980s was a milestone in bike styling, its sporty GSX and GSX-R series have been performance mainstays for over 30 years, and its legendary Hayabusa was the world’s fastest production motorcycle upon its introduction in 1999.