BROUGH SUPERIOR 'RETURN TO THE SALT' PREVIEW

Rider Eric Patterson aboard the 1150cc Brough Superior 'Roadrunner' with new, shapely streamlining, similar in feel to the 1930s Brough record-breaker 'Leaping Lena'

The Ace Café sponsored a preview party for Brough Superior's second Bonneville invasion at the Petersen Automotive Museum in LA yesterday, bringing along the pair of salt flat racers they'll be campaigning.  Jay Leno hosted the event, and unveiled a surprise - a completely new all-carbon-fiber sports machine with a Brough Superior logo!  I'll get the full story on this machine, and BS Chief Mark Upham's intentions, when I head to Bonneville next week.

Here's Mark's note on last night's event: 

"Dear Paul,

 I am sorry you were not able to come across to the party; here are a few words and pictures.

The revamped Brough 1150 'Roadrunner', showing the minimal streamlining allowed for specific categories of record.

Mark McKee very kindly hosted the Ace Café/Brough Superior Party "Return to the Salt".

Unveiled was the redesigned and very radical streamlined Brough Superior  1150cc formally known as the Retro Brough, now renamed "The Roadrunner". This bike is campaigning for 4 class world titles at BUB 2013.

The 'Baby Pendine' Brough Superior, with a 750cc MkII engine

The second bike unveiled - formally known,as the 'Baby Pendine', is also fitted with a MKII engine but of only 750cc capacity. Due to its manorial type windshield, holding the coat of arms of the Brough family, it is been renamed "The Black Knight", and is campaigning for 2 categories of titles, two FIM and 4 AMA.

 

The previously unseen Brough Superior entry into Moto2 GP racing, built by John Keogh and Paul Taylor

The 3rd motorcycle unveiled, and a great shock for many there, was the extremely radical Moto2 carbon-fiber Brough Superior. This motorcycle has a full monocoque chassis, designed by John Keogh, and was engineered by Paul Taylor of Taylor Race Engineering, USA, specifically to race in the Moto2 GP Class, and will be entered in the GP series as a wild card in 2014.

The bike is tried and tested, it was seen at Goodwood [Festival of Speed] in demonstration runs, driven by Alan Cathcart. No one knew it was a Brough Superior, since until now it is only ever been raced and tested without any Brough Superior livery. The bike was unveiled by Jay Leno.

Thank you,

Mark Upham"


Click HERE to subscribe by email to TheVintagent.com

Read more »

'PENDINE' AT PENDINE

The Vintagent's very irregular correspondent Mike Jackson sends these notes regarding the inaugural Pendine Sands racing weekend last June:

The beautiful new Brough Superior SS101 Pendine

"The newly-formed Pendine Landspeed Racing Club (LRC) draws on the significant history of a very historic stretch of beach in Wales, the site of many World Speed Record attempts in the 1920s. The LRC held its inaugural Speed Trial on the weekend of June 21/23rd, and the revived Brough Superior was present to test its pair of Bonneville-bound racers; Brough Superior last used the sands for this purpose in 1928! 

Since Anthony Hopkins’ film The World's Fastest Indian, interest in Land Speed Record (LSR) racing has grown exponentially, and further increased in the UK due to BBC 2's show Speed Dreams; The Fastest Place on Earth, which showed five UK riders prepping for and racing at Bonneville, in August 2012. Among the racers featured in the series was John Renwick, the charismatic and intrepid pilot of a streamliner Vincent with 3 wheels; 6-meters long! It was exciting to see every ‘Speed Dreams’ crew entered at this inaugural event at Pendine, which one hopes will become annual. 

Henry Cole was filming for ITV and the Discovery Channel; he'll ride at Bonneville

In late 2012, Paul James descended on Pendine with a small group of LSR enthusiasts for a 2-day session of timed runs. The bureaucratic obstacles thrown in their way would fill volumes, but eventually 50 entrants arrived on Friday for scrutineering, with an eclectic selection of speed-tuned motorcycles and outright projectiles. Paul James hoped to make a symbolic Opening Run on Saturday morning at 8am, but the schedule was postponed repeatedly with high winds, lousy visibility, and rain. After calling a Rider's Meeting on the sand, the LRC announced that poor weather would confine the event to demonstration runs. That blustery 15 minute meeting was blessed with both rain and watery sunshine; when it’s wet, Pendine is a special kind of hell! 

Brough mechanic - and isn't that a rare job description - Sam Lovegrove

Most competitors managed two or more demonstration runs, including Eric Patterson, the popular Kempton Park Autojumble organizer, who rode a new Brough Superior ‘Pendine’ model, appropriately enough.  Brough Superior is planning its own assault on the Bonneville Salt Flats with two new Broughs, to be ridden by Patterson, Henry Cole, and Alan Cathcart. More details on the Brough Superior run of August 24-29 2013 can be found here."

Eric Patterson models his new Lewis Leathers 'Brough Superior' kit

The Team: Sam Lovegrove, Michael Jackson, Eric Patterson, and an Italian film director, Marco Superiori, shooting a documentary on English weather.

Read more »

BROUGH SUPERIOR BACK TO THE SALT

Brough Superior CEO Mark Upham at Bonneville in 2011, where the Brough reached a peak speed of 127.1mph

After a two-year hiatus spent developing a new race machine, Brough Superior returns to Bonneville for the BUB speed trials August 24-29.  Brough director Mark Upham is confident in their new attack on 10 World's Speed Records in their class, having started from a clean slate after their successful Bonneville runs in 2011, and will return with TWO Brough Superior 'SS101's for speed record work.  Pictured below is 'the second machine being road-tested, after the 5th dyno test.  We are more than happy with the results.'  

The keen-eyed will spot a twin-carb and twin-magneto setup on the new Brough Superior Bonneville racer, plus a Pendine-style fuel tank (with metal straps), and a JTOR-style engine with enclosed rockers.  The 'Castle' forks have been reinforced, and gone are the distinctive air scoops from the 2011 machine. Whether this machine is as-yet unpainted, or will be nickel plated as per the 'Works Scrapper' remains to be seen...

This is the first photograph yet released of the new Brough Superior record-breaker; Mark Upham promises "Better pictures will be available in August.  You have the first one - no one has this picture yet."  Upham continues, "We are going back to run for 10 world records this year; ITV will make four one-hour films about Brough Superior and the Bonneville challenge.  There will also be, Henry Cole will also film for the Motorbike Show and The Discovery channel.  Our rider's this year are Eric Patterson, Alan Cathcart and Henry Cole."

Brough Superior goes back to the Bonneville Salt Flats from Revival Cycles on Vimeo.

The Vintagent will be at Bonneville this August to document the action!

Read more »

THE BLUE BIKE

Marty Dickerson on his Rapide in 1953 at the Bonneville Salt Flats

In 1948, an eighteen year old walked into ‘Mickey’ Martin’s Burbank Vincent-HRD dealership, putting a cash deposit on the $1120 sale price of a new ‘Series B’ Touring Rapide, starting a payment plan on what was then the most expensive motorcycle in the world.  The inspiration for his trip to Martin’s LA emporium were the boasts of a Vincent-owning Scotsman who spoke of leaving ‘long black streaks’ on the highway while passing cars, in third gear and 70mph no less. Readers of the late 40s motorcycle press were familiar with Vincent-HRD ads touting impossible speeds, right beside ads for x-ray glasses and miracle bodybuilding powders.  Very few Americans had actually seen a Vincent, even less had ridden one to test the claims.

Marty Dickerson, the youth in question, thought the Rapide was ugly, but he “wanted that power, wanted that speed”.  He was not disappointed with his purchase, and quickly came to understand he now owned the fastest motorcycle on the planet, and soon, as young men will do, set about proving that fact to SoCal motorcyclists who believed they had the fastest bikes.  Harley Davidson had been around since the early part of the Century, as had rival Indian, and their American devotees used the collected wisdom of decades of engine-tuning to make some pretty hot bikes by the 1940s, the toughest and fastest of which tended to be ‘strokers’ with huge motors of over 100 cubic inches displacement (1600cc).  Dickerson and his Vincent aroused the curiosity and pride of LA’s fastest street-racers, who formed an increasingly short line to challenge him to a ‘drag’.  No matter the fame of the engine builder or skill of his rival at fast getaways, it was always Marty’s Rapide which first crossed whatever waved-sweater or crossed headlamp finish line was laid, out there on the lonely roads appropriate for such contests.

There were other ways to test speed, and the SCTA (Southern California Timing Association) provided timed evidence to bolster a reputation gained on the streets.  At Muroc Dry Lake that year, Marty squeezed 118mph from his Rapide, while his buddy ‘Tex’ Luce, a Vincent mechanic fated to make his own mark on the racing world, found just a bit more, and recorded 122.04mph on the bone-stock machine, with all lights, mudguards, and mufflers intact and present. Motorcyclists are a stubborn and loyal bunch, and the evidence of a new ‘fastest’ motorcycle didn’t translate into immediate sales.  In truth, Vincent-HRD sales were dismal in California, and by June 1949, ‘Mickey’ Martin had 20 unsold Vincents languishing on his showroom floor.  Knowing of Dickerson’s antics in back-road street racing, and more importantly his success at the game, Martin hatched a plan to send young Marty on a ‘tour’ of the southwest quadrant of the US, to raise awareness of the Vincent-HRD marque in the best way – nudge, wink – he knew how.  Martin offered to cover all travel expenses, and take over the Rapide’s loan payments, and soon Marty Dickerson had the best possible job in the world for a 19 year old, being paid to street race all comers in small towns across America, astride the fastest production motorcycle built.

The Rapide becoming 'Californized', with a bobbed rear fender, trumpet exhaust, cowhorn 'bars...

For one month in that summer of ’49, Marty Dickerson had the ‘drag racing adventure of a lifetime’, covering 5000 miles through Phoenix, Dallas, Tulsa, Ft.Worth, Tyler, Kansas City, and smaller towns in Colorado and Utah.  He raced the fastest motorcycles And cars the locals could muster, sometimes legendary monsters which had never been bested.  There were close calls, such as when he didn’t have time to change a fouled spark plug before a race, and the Vincent spluttered on one-and-a-half cylinders while his rival rocketed ahead.  Quick thinking and a ‘poor man’s tuneup’ (downshifting from 3^rd to 2^nd at high revs to blast the plugs clean) cleared the cough and saw Marty take the lead once again. There were other times when ‘sore losers’, with much time and reputation invested in their Harleys or Hotrods, made a hasty exit the prudent choice for young Mr. Dickerson.  It must have been infuriating when some short, big-nosed kid on a strange motorbike (‘Harley R Davidson?’) kept pace with the Knucklehead you’d spent months tuning for speed, until your throttle was hard on the stop while you crouched low over the tank…only to watch ‘that kid’ shift into 4^th gear, and leave you eating his dust.

The Vincent had its problems in that hard month of racing, requiring the total replacement of a clutch cable and a few engine shock absorber springs, which weren’t expecting such abuse. 

Dickerson’s exploits were legend, and rumors spread like pond ripples from a cherry bomb about ‘a kid’ with a really fast Vincent, kicking butt all over the Southwest.  He came and went through towns so fast nobody remembered it was ‘Marty Dickerson’ riding, he was the Street Racer with No Name, but tales of his exploits reverberate to this day, and form the actual backbone of the Vincent story in America.

On his undefeated return to LA, Dickerson was employed at Martin’s Vincent emporium as a mechanic, joining ‘Tex’ Luce and another fellow with a history of street racing and record-breaking; Rollie Free. In 1950, Free and his pal Marty took a newly delivered Vincent Black Lightning to the Bonneville Salt Flats, and set about taking records in Class ‘A’ racing, in which special fuels were used. Rollie Free raised his infamous ‘bathing suit’ record (taken at 150mph, in 1948), making his Vincent again the fastest standard motorcycle in the world, averaging over 156mph. 

The salt bug bit Marty deep, and he decided to modify his trusty Rapide for higher speeds, choosing Class ‘C’ (pump gas) to avoid direct competition with his pal Rollie.  The Rapides’ transformation from ‘daily rider’ to ‘salt flat racer’ was completed with Lightning parts from the Vincent factory, and a change of color scheme: she was now the ‘Blue Bike’.   A new set of crankcases was required after 3 years of drag racing, and the Blue Bike gained engine cases marked ‘301’.  Two years of development were required before things really came together for this machine; larger carbs and hotter cams gave a new Class ‘C’ record in 1953, averaging 147.58mph, with a fastest timed speed of 150.959mph, on pump gas, with Marty sitting on the seat (not stretched out as Rollie did), and a class-mandated 8:1 compression ratio.  The Blue Bike was massaged, but all the parts were Vincent items, and the bike wasn’t so high strung that it couldn’t be ridden on the street.  That 150mph record stood for over twenty years!  It took a change of rules (allowing higher than 82 Octane fuel), and a hot Yoshimura Kawasaki, to break it.

Over the years,  Marty continued to develop the Blue Bike, returning to Bonneville in 1976, ’80, ’86, ’96, and finally, at 67 years old for the man and 49 years the machine, in 1997.   His later years competing at Bonneville were less dramatically successful than those early days, but had the important function of cementing Dickerson’s reputation among younger riders and new generations of racing enthusiasts, amazed at his stories and respectful of the legends around Marty and his Rapide.  All of which happen to be true.

The number of motorcycles worldwide which have endured serious competition for 50 years can be counted on one hand.  Within this very special group, machines which have taken world records at Bonneville, and cemented the reputation of an entire brand in recognizably stock form, can be counted on one finger.  The Blue Bike is unique.

If you want to see it in person, the Blue Bike is on display at Altai Design in Los Angeles.

Read more »

WET PLATES ON A DRY LAKE

Alain de Cadanet astride the 'Edgar' Vincent Black Shadow, on which Rollie Free made his infamous 'bathing suit' run at 150mph at Bonneville in 1948.  Alain was filming for the Discovery Channel, and brought a bathing cap and swimsuit!

The common wisdom of shooting collodion/wet plate is you need lots of water and mild conditions, neither of which applies to the harsh dryness of the Bonneville salt flats.  I don't know if anyone has shot tintypes there, but I brought my Chamonix view camera and a van full of chemicals, and set up a rough-and-ready darkroom in the brightest, whitest, shadelest spot on earth.   The reflectivity of the salt, the utter lack of clouds or greenery, made chaos of my exposures and nearly solarized any shots not made under a canopy.  And their blown-out quality catches something of the ceaseless glare of the place, and its harsh beauty.

Ana Llorente, an East Side Moto Babe, on her 175cc Motobecane

Jared Zaugg drove from Salt Lake City to say hi to the gang; here on Vincent Prat's 'Team Impossible' Triton, shipped from Toulouse

This '47 Knucklehead looked right at home on the salt; ridden in, ridden around.  The extreme light reflection from the white salt and bright sun makes exposure times tough to calculate, and plays tricks on the collodion

Artist Maxwell Paternoster of Corpses From Hell visiting the USA for the first time; straight to the salt!

Shinya Kimura wrenches on his HD Knucklehead special, 'the Spike', which had just done a 114mph run.  As there is no place to wash the tintypes after exposure (they need 10 minutes under running water to clear out the chemicals), they must sit in a tray of water after exposure and fixing.  The collodion substrate is extremely soft and vulnerable to scratching, especially when the photo is transported 600 miles in the back of my van before washing...

Southsiders Vincent and Olivier Prat with their 'Impossible' Triton, with which we could relive a bit of 'Wheels and Waves', but the ocean had receded, and we were left with salts of the long-vanished Bonneville sea. 

Willy and his fantastic T-bucket 'Krautliner'...which did 247mph...

Looking like an 1890s 'Wanted' poster, David Borras of El Solitario MC

Shinya and Ayu with their Knucklehead...

Read more »

BROUGH AT BONNEVILLE

The SS101 'Retro' record-breaker, built for Bonneville

Fully 62 years later, a factory-backed speed record attempt by Brough Superior coalesced on the vast white plain of the Bonneville Salt Flats.  The Brough name has been in continuous usage since George Brough himself last assembled a motorcycle in the late 1940s; GB maintained an engineering works for years, then sold the name to new owners, who each hoped to resume production of the grandest name in motorcycling.  I was standing with Mark Upham the day his own Brough lightbulb lit up; in May 2008 at the Legend of the Motorcycle Concours, Bonhams offered the name and rights for Brough Superior, and Upham, an arch enthusiast of the marque and #1 seller of Broughs in the world at the time (via his shop British Only Austria), decided he would own the name, and resume production himself.

Mark Upham wheeling his SS101 'Pendine'...

Such is the romantic and deeply personal interest of Upham in the marque, that within minutes of deciding to own Brough Superior, his thoughts turned to the World Land Speed Records which held the world's attention before WW2.  'We will have to build a bike for speed and take it to Bonneville', were his very words that May, and within 3 years, he made good on his promise. 

The engine room of the SS101 'TE Lawrence Replica', complete with alloy exhaust muffs

After securing the rights to the Brough Superior name, designs, and goodwill (a substantial investment), Upham immediately set about building brand new examples of a 'Top-10' most beautiful motorcycles ever made; the first series B-S 'SS100' model, powered by a racing J.A. Prestwich 'KTOR' 1000cc ohv v-twin.  In only two years, the first new Brough Superior 'SS101' model stood in the metal, and soon there were six of the world's most expensive production motorcycles, variations of the SS101 series, from an open-pipe 'Pendine' racer, to standard 'Touring' model, and an exact replica of TE Lawrence's 1927 machine, one of 7 he owned, which included a replica of his famous 'swagger stick' clipped to the Castle forks.

Mark Wilsmore of the Ace Café and his 'El Aurance' impression on the TEL Rep

Making a motorcycle from scratch to the high standards befitting a Brough is a tall order in our post-industrial world: finding individuals with that rare combination of skill, knowledge, and reliability has been Upham's struggle for the past 3 years - the right 'fit' for a Brough Superior.  Any number of businesses could provide drawings, raw castings, or whole components, but making them function perfectly as a motorbike has taken as much time as orchestrating the manufacture of the important parts.  Inevitably, there have been bumps, although Upham feels he's finally got a team as capable of developing the bikes, as building them. George Brough had such legendary 'issues' with his suppliers, sending broken gearboxes and crankshafts back to Sturmey-Archer and JAP for 'improvement', until strengthened or redesigned parts appeared at his doorstep.   Eventually, his frustration with JAP engines drove him to more sedate AMC v-twin engines, although any sporting pretensions disappeared with this move towards reliability.

Team captain Alastair Gibson has just discovered how bumpy is the salt...

The Brough Superior SS101 'Retro' which appeared at Bonneville is a mix of old and new components, the whole machine conceived by ex-Honda F1 technician Alastair Gibson, who escaped the rigors of the megabucks F1 racing world to pursue his creation of carbon-fiber sculpture.  Lured out of mechanical retirement by Upham, Gibson (a vintagent of the first order, with an impressive personal collection of 20s and 30s racing bikes - to be covered in a later post) designed the chassis of the 'Retro' for Bonneville, the frame constructed of modern, lightweight T45 tubing, all-welded, lower and 2" longer than the standard Brough item.  New Castle forks were used, and Gibson designed the petrol tank with unique air intakes which duct a cooling breeze to the motor's exhaust ports.  That JAP engine is a 1087cc Bonneville veteran, having taken rider Eric Patterson to 126mph on the salt, housed in a Norton Featherbed chassis; its a modified postwar JAP racing v-twin, as used in Cooper cars or speedway sidecar racing, reputedly able to produce 120hp on methanol, its magnesium crankcases and alloy cylinder barrels and heads painted black for heat dissipation (and a nod to the earlier iron top end of the Brough-JAPs).

Salt cakes the 'Retro' after a test run...the bike had to be cleaned after every salt encounter

The engine was further modified in England, and dyno-tested as capable of 160mph on the road, but the salt of Bonneville is a far cry from sea-level tarmac, as many hopeful speed record contenders have discovered.  Running on 108octane petrol with an 11:1 compression ratio and 40mm Amal mk2 carbs, the 'Retro' was tuned in England for the 4000' altitude of Utah, both Gibson and rider Patterson having previous experience of Bonneville (Gibson having run a Honda F1 car at 400kph in 2006).  The Brough Superior crew assembled first in Los Angeles, with generous host Jay Leno providing workshop space in his capacious Burbank warehouse, then moved en masse to Utah, with a week to see what the 'Retro' would do.

Gibson give rider Eric Patterson some quick notes on rev limits for an early run...

The 1100cc/gas/unstreamlined class record stood at 110mph, and breaking that was the goal of the attempt.  Upham described this first visit to Boneville as a 'Training year...our goal is simply to see what we can do with this machine our first year.  We have no great goals, but do want to break the record."  The first runs of the Retro were taken at around the 100mph mark, with lowered gearing and a rev limit of 4500rpm - 2300rpm shy of the maximum - just to see how she felt on the salt.  With no chassis waggles or steering head shakes, rider Eric Patterson gave the thumbs up to the chassis' rideability, and the team gradually built up speed over their days under the sun, eventually taking the record at an average of 124.98mph, with a peak speed of 127.1mph.  Patterson's substantial experience actually riding at speed on the salt on vintage machinery was an invaluable component of the record attempt, and the entire, sprawling team, under their collection of awnings, tarps, trailers, RVs, and hangers-on, deserve congratulations on their first, successful attempt to bring Brough Superior back to Bonneville.

Mark Upham is already considering the future; "Perhaps we need a supercharger!"

The Brough Superior Bonneville team and supporters

How to pack four Broughs, plus a few other tasty machines, in one trailer; the entire workshop had to be 'rolled up' at night, as regulations prevent overnight camping on the salt...each Brough had its own carry-box; not required at night though...

Big guns, ready to go

After tech inspection, the fuel filler caps are sealed; no nitro allowed!

Out at the 'Long International' staging area, 3 miles from anywhere, waiting to for a run...

Tarpaulins cover the salt to keep a semi-clean work area

Perils of the salt (1): Gibson took a spill after the rear brake pedal jammed at 20mph...

The Long International staging area

Sam Lovegrove, mechanic extraordinaire

Eric Patterson, in his Lewis Leathers-made racing suit, chats with another competitor

Revival motorcycles of Austin, Texas, helped out by bringing an RV (air conditioning!), a full workshop including a lathe and mill, and exotic pit bikes

Engine room of the 'Pendine', a 'dog ear' JAP KTOR engine

The Pendine in a white infinity

Patterson takes the 3 mile journey to his record-run staging area

Jared Zaugg on the Pendine

Men's File magazine's Matt Hind stages a photo shoot on the salt

Japanese journalists fascinated by the Brough

Perils of the salt (2); a chunk of salt lodge under the front mudguard of the Retro, sending rider Patterson tumbling at 20mph...better than 120mph!

Flagged off for his second run

Brough Superior, always the movie star

Retro on the salt; note the KandN air filters - necessary!

The Brough caravanserai, all trailers, tents, and trucks

The salt is a solitary place for a rider

The Pendine and its box

Retro on an early morning photo session; those mountains are 12miles away...

3 Bonhams consultants with the Coventry Eagle 'Flying 8' which sold at Quail for ~$260k; Jared Zaugg, Mike Jackson, Pd'O

Read more »