171 MPH ON A VELOCETTE!

Stuart Hooper aboard his supercharged Velocette, which just recorded 171.6mph at Lake Gairdner, AustraliaFrom Stuart Hooper:"Hi to all,For the first time in many years Lake Gairdner Speed Trials were unaffected by wet weather.  The surface was initially a little rough and the weather very hot requiring a careful eye on engine temperatures and excessively rich mixtures to ensure the engine survived the meeting. After a steady sighting run to check out the new body and steering geometry the Big Velo ran 166 mph on its second outing !!!!  This was good cause for celebration as the Velo was now the Worlds fastest British single surpassing the fantastic Vincent Might Mouse of Bryan Chapman.The Velocette unfaired; this photo...

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PAEAN TO THE 'THRUXTON'

My 1965 Velocette Thruxton, VMT260, 'La Courgette', pictured in 1988(The following was written for the Southsiders MC blog on the occasion of a lovely set of photographs taken by Guerry/Prat images of an all-black Velocette Thruxton):Only a monumental fool would deny the Velocette Thruxton its rightful place upon the mount of Olympus, to drip oil beside Zeus and Apollo, glowing modestly while the gods beside it trouble the earth. I know all this because I am a Thruxton's caretaker, so blessed for 25 years now, and the machine told me so.I retain my marbles, nor is my walnut cracked; the Velocette spoke over tens of thousands of miles in my company, providing an embarrassment of pleasure, enough that should she take on human form, I would feel...

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ALTERNATIVE MOTORRAD KONZEPT

 The Porsche AMK concept motorcycle was unveiled in 1978, the rider wearing a Ghillie Suit appropriate for a Mardi-gras hunting party.As part of a special exhibition celebrating 40 years of the Porsche Design Studio, the new Porsche Museum in Stuttgart, designed by Delugan Meissl Architects of Vienna (Porsche Design doesn't yet do buildings apparently) is exhibiting a few iconic and experimental projects, which includes the 'AMK' - Alternatives Motorrad Konzept - of 1978.  The design brief was a two-wheeler with crossover appeal to automobilists... a project attempted by dozens of motorcycle manufacturers from the very first days of motorized transport.  The 'two wheeled car' has met with very little success over the past...

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3 DAYS TO PARIS....

Its just killing me.  I'm not going to be in Paris for Rétromobile, or the Bonhams auction at the Grand Palais, the most spectacular auction venue in the world.  Instead, I'll be in SoCal, for Conrad Leachs' show, the Rin Tanaka's Inspiration show at the Queen Mary, and to do some riding with Jérome and Dimitri Coste, and Conrad.  A fair trade?   Would that all the above were in Paris!What a machine!  The road-going, ex-racer 1968 Egli Vincent, for sale at Bonhams Grand Palais...But, if you haven't checked over the Bonhams Grand Palais sale list, it's worth a linger, as there's some really tasty machinery.  Top of the list, perhaps not historically, but in terms of sheer sex appeal, is this original 1968 Egli Vincent,...

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SELLING SPEED: WHAT'S IN A NAME?

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CONRAD LEACH: 'UNITED STATE'

Painter Conrad Leach is having a show in Los Angeles this month (Feb 9 - Arp 19, 2013), at the new Subvecta Motus Gallery.  Here's what I wrote in the exhibition catalog:"Conrad Leach is wrestling the angel of Art on the Bonneville Salt Flats.  He’s been at it for 15 years, and is winning, fixing on canvas a transcendent vision of the noisy, dangerous and highly romantic struggle of a certain type of character, willing to risk all for a worthless wreath of laurel.  While painters have grappled with motorization since Turner’s ‘Rain, Steam, and Speed’ of 1844, few have made it their career, fewer still push past the nostalgia and kitsch which ruin the genre.  Ignoring all that, Leach’s interior dig, to access that gnawing...

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