'CHINESE RED' ORIGINAL VINCENT

Besides the super-rare Hildebrand and Wolfmüller coming up for sale at Bonhams' big Las Vegas auction on January 6, 2011, scouts have unearthed an original-paint, very rare 1952 'Touring' Vincent Rapide.  Discovered in a garage in Fresno, CA, the Vincent has only 8500 miles on the clock, and is virtually untouched.  The 'Chinese Red' paint scheme is very popular with collectors, as the Touring version of the Rapide model has 19" wheels and painted, fully valanced mudguards...more room for paint as opposed to the normal Vincent chrome steel blades.  Apparently this machine sat for nearly 50 years, untouched, and will need 'light recommissioning' to make roadworthy...ie, to find out what stopped it back then!

The bike is estimated to sell for $85-100,000, which means the reserve is probably $85k.  Not cheap, but then, not many Vincents are left in original paint, with less than 10k miles!

Tesla Roadster Toyota boss ride

Collection of sports cars Toyota Motor Corporation president Akio Toyoda increases. When some time ago he got a Lotus Elise, now he just received the Tesla Roadster, an electric-powered sports car.

Maroon colored car was a gift given directly by the CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk, the Tesla Toyoda in the first showroom in Asia, located in Tokyo, Japan.

According to Elon, if Toyoda receive and drive a Tesla Roadster, the automotive market in Japan will also be more responsive and open to receive the product. "We are optimistic the Japanese market is very fantastic," said Elon.

HOW YOU FIND THEM #18: AJS 'H7' RACER

There is little more exciting than finding an old racing motorcycle literally in a barn, slathered inside and out with heavy oil, a solid gold tale of racing history attached.  More problematic is the task of documenting such provenance, for while any 80 year old bike is interesting, a claim that it placed 3rd in the Junior Isle of Man TT of 1927, Jimmy Simpson aboard, is very much more interesting indeed.

This lovely AJS H7 350cc overhead camshaft machine is certainly a rare beast whether roadster or racer, and one of very few from the category 'flat tank cammies', a super exclusive club.  Overhead-cam drive was typically adopted post-1927 by the motorcycle industry; the 'saddle tank' was the fashionable thing by that date, thus only early adopters such as Velocette (1925 - 'K' model) and AJS in 1928 with their models K7 (349cc) and K10 (498cc), but in this case, the letter referred to the year of production.  At first glance, the pannier tanks look to be the real deal, a factory racing item never sold to the public, and it bears a small plaque with '27 TT', plus the number '35'.  The early André steering and fork dampers look correct, as does the rare Binks twistgrip throttle assembly, and the Lucas horseshoe racing magneto. Curioser and curioser. (Above, Simpson making minor adjustments to his mount at the TT.)

The AJS was almost unique in using the simplest method of driving cams before the advent of rubber belts; a chain drive.  There had been plenty of chain-driven OHC motorcycles, cars and airplanes previous to this, but the recently-patented 'Weller' spring-steel blade chain tensioner (see above), used under license, meant the long travel from crankshaft sprocket to cylinder head was not accompanied by chain whip, nor the need to predict thermal expansion of the engine when setting up chain tension.  In short, it made such a drive elegant, and very easy to set up, as opposed to the Velocette/Norton/Ducati shaft-and-bevel drive, which took skills to get everything shimmed up just right, and was therefore expensive to produce.

Specification of the AJS overhead-camshaft engine was fairly advanced for the day, with a proper recirculating oil pump and aluminum rocker arms, although AJS had yet to discover that a camshaft acting directly on the rocker arms had different requirements from the whippy 'knitting needles' driving standard OHV engines.  The frame was a bit 'light' for a TT race, and the Druid sidespring forks primitive in their lack of movement...and in the case of this machine, the André friction fork damper would have simply slowed down the meager 1" of motion.  The brakes are nothing to celebrate either, for while the rear will lock the wheel, the front is good for one strong squeeze, then expect nothing further!  I speak from experience, having owned a 'Big Port' ohv from 1928... That said, while the chassis was strictly traditional, these 'flat tank' AJS' steer to a hair, even if they weave a bit at speed.

The oil coating under which this racer was found means somebody cared to protect it, even if the machine sat for decades.  The current owner first encountered the AJS 5 years ago, sitting in a cattle shed in Scotland, although the owner did not wish to sell.  Five weeks ago he was passing the same farm (370 miles from home), and stopped in to ask after the bike, on the off chance.  "The old man had recently gone into an old persons home, to which his son directed me, and that was that!  He told me the bike had stood in the barn for the last 40 years; it was full of oil - the engine, tanks, every part that could hold oil did and then some...a sort of very heavy oil all over.  He said it was Jimmy Simpson's 1927 TT bike, but could not find the paper work. Still hope of this turning up."  Yes, hope will be necessary; if the story pans out, this is quite a discovery.

Addendum:  While an interesting old motorcycle, recently brought to light is a Discovery to the new owner (and the rest of the world), of course there are persons who might have seen the machine many years ago, while it was still in action.  Such is the case here: the Discovery for someone 40 years familiar with this lovely old AJS was that the coveted old girl was in the pages of The Vintagent! 

It would seem unlikely this machine was Simpson's IoM racer, as the factory built 6 or 7 pre-production Works ohc machines for their team in 1927, and Simpson would probably have been given his racing mount to do yet more competition work, after the big race.

This Ajay has had an interesting life - the former owner, in his 80s now, owned this AJS from the age of 15!  His father forbade him to ride it, but of course, he did, and on one occasion pere arrived home and noted a warm cylinder on the AJS.  He than attacked the little bike with an axe, breaking the fins off the cylinder barrel and head.  A talented blacksmithing cousin welded the cast-iron fins back onto the engine, and of course the bike survived the insult.

Geneva Car Show

( Geneva Car Show,MSN Japan)

There is something rotten in the car industry - the way they promote new models. Case in point: Treehugger wrote about the Mitsubishi Miev, a cool little car that has zero CO2 emissions (beacuse it is an electric car). That was back in September, 2007, and it was also displayed it in New York in early 2008. So I was surprised that news about this car is the leading story on Japan's MSN, the news website linked to hotmail.com. What's new? Apparently, nothing. The occasion? They are announcing that they are going to show this car at the 79th Geneva Car Show in March, 2009.

Honda Civic Hybrid

THE ART, AND AUCTION, OF THE MOTORCYCLE

Twelve years have elapsed since motorcycles filled the spiral of the Guggenheim museum in New York (1998), and two-wheelers have yet to see full acceptance within the Fine Arts/Fine Design establishment.  While the 'Art of the Motorcycle' show remains that museum's second-highest-attended exhibit, it was considered something of a populist sell-out at the time, especially as it pioneered an 'interested sponsor' relationship with BMW (although little discussion was published about 'named' sponsorship in general). Few critics defended the Guggenheim's Thomas Krens for hosting a major motorcycle exhibit on hallowed Art turf, unless of course they happened to be motorcyclists themselves.  Even then, the level of discourse around Motorcycles and Culture generally bordered on flippant, unless the mood was outrage.  The 'Art of the Motorcycle', imperfect as it may have been, was a vital first effort at establishing motorcycles as important within a broader dialogue on Design and Culture.

The upcoming sale of the prototype 1925 Brough Superior SS100 'Alpine Grand Sports' at Phillips de Pury, is the first instance post-AotM of a motorcycle's inclusion in a major Art or Design auction.  As such, it represents a shift in attitude within the Fine Arts auction establishment, which has been brewing for 12 years.  The closest we've come thus far was in June of 2009, when an ex-Steve McQueen 1929 Scott Flying Squirrel, painted by 'Von Dutch', was auctioned at Antiquorum in New York, within a sale of celebrity-owned watches and memorabilia.  The Scott fetched $276,000, double its estimate and SIX times what it had sold for less than two years prior, in 2007 at the Bonhams Petersen Museum sale that October ($44,460).  Interestingly, the Petersen sale included considerable McQueen and Von Dutch memorabilia as well, but failed to attract the results of the Antiquorum sale.  Begging the question...was the Antiquorum clientele so significantly different than Bonhams', or had the market for magical Steve McQueen talismans suddenly gone mad?  Considering that June 2009 was a troubling time in the global economy, and a moment generally of weakening collectible sales, I have to conclude that Antiquorum has an audience with far deeper pockets.  A specialist in fine watches, they hold the record for a wristwatch sale at auction; a unique white gold Patek Philippe which sold for just over $5M (They are also notorious for selling Gandhi's pocket watch, sandals, glasses, and bowl for over $2M).  If a wristwatch can sell for so much, can such an esteemed motorcycle be far behind? 

When asked why he chose to include his SS100 in the Phillips de Pury auction, the current owner stated, 'I've been wanting to do this for years; Broughs have far transcended their original purpose as a motorcycle, and should be included in a major Design sale.  I've known Marcus Tremonto for years, he is the absolute expert on 20th Century Decorative Art and Design... I wish I knew as much as he's forgotten!  Phillips has an fabulous new facility on 57th and 5th in Manhattan, and their last big Art sale totalled $137M, so this auction should be quite something.  If nothing else, it will give everyone something to think about.  Friends say 'if it fails to sell, the bike will be tarnished', but that's rubbish...if the Brough falls on its face, it will stay at my house.  Eventually it will ring the bell.'

Phillips de Pury is bolstering inclusion of the Brough in their 'Design Masters' sale with fully 10 pages of lavish photographs, more than double the visibility granted other Design greats in the catalog: Le Corbusier, Jean Prouvé, Robert Mallet-Stevens, etc.  The Alpine Grand Sports is the highlighted feature of the sale, and nearly double the nearest sale estimate, $350,000 for a Marc Newson futuristic aluminum 'Orgone stretch lounge' of 1993.  Clearly, Phillips is banking heavily that the time is ripe to place George Brough within the pantheon of all-time great Designers.

A serious re-appraisal of Motorcycles within our capitalist society will of course include a fight for ownership of the agreed 'finest' examples.  These are the rarest of the rare, and the pattern has already been established within the motorcycling community itself.  Just as with paintings or other Design items, the notion of an object's 'value' is intimately connected with its sale price, and as the eyes of well-heeled Art collectors turn towards two wheels, there will be a serious rise in prices for significant racing machines and legendary road bikes. It is inevitable. 

Dedicated motorcyclists who covet rare machines will decry the continuing trend of top-tier machines floating away from the reach of their checkbooks.  Yet, even with waves of speculation during the past two 'bubbles' of the 1980s and 2000s, the price of excellent but relatively high-production bikes has remained under $30,000; affordable, if not cheap... the price of a new all-options Harley Davidson.  The cost of a restored 1969 Triumph Bonneville will continue to reflect more on the labor and quality of the restoration, than on wild excesses of a speculator's market...at least while the economy is depressed. As time passes, the relative glut of old motorcycles, versus the number of willing owners, will also conspire to keep prices of 'common' bikes moderate. Thus, we may dream of owning a Brough Superior, Crocker, or racing BMW, but will have to content ourselves with a Matchless Model X, Indian Chief, or BMW R69S.  Fair?  Well, I'd dearly love a Rembrandt too...

Photos:
Top; Francis Dixon and George Brough prepare for the Alpine Trial of 1925.
Second; Brough, Dixon, and Eddie Meier, Austrian Brough Superior importer, Alpine Trial, 1925.
Third; former owner of 'HP2122' AGS prototype, Prince Chagla of India.
Fourth; from the Philips de Pury catalog.
Fifth; George Brough at speed during the 1925 Alpine Trial.
Last; from the Philips de Pury catalog.

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