Saturday, October 17, 2009

Some items from the late Phil Irving's literature collection and some more from others ............

Phil Irving is well known to those of us interested in British Motorcycles and to digress, his autobiography really is a "must read".......
Following his death, eventually his literature collection was sold and occasionally the purchaser drops by with little "gems" that I make a copy of....better still, if it is Velocette he has of late been giving them to me......
Hope springs eternal.....
From one of Phil's four small black notebooks is a page on a supercharged Velocette that was in development while he was there....as it was early on, it is "Wiffling Clara", which Ivan Rhodes is currently restoring, and the Foxwell supercharger was proving ellusive to source, so he is having one made....PEI has helped with some notes...
Left click on images to enlarge.....























Phil at Veloce a little later, during WW2, was involved with the development of the MAF, a military variant of the MAC.























PEI was offered a job back at the Vincent-HRD company during 1943....















































During 1934, Vincent collaborated with R.C.Cross for the development of a rotary valve cylinder head...pictured is the rider, Millard, with R.C.Cross. Note the cable operated rear brakes.



















At Bathurst, NSW, Australia during the Easter races, Harold Braund is featured on his Vincent "Black Lightning" outfit with passenger Noel Bailey.
















A photo of Kel Carruthers' highly successful 1961 250/4 Honda, restored and just prior to shipment from Australia to his home in the USA.( Years back, I can't recall the date...)
The bike now is in the Barber Motorcycle Museum in Alabama.

















OEC record breaker, with Leo Tobin aboard...details of where and when are sketchy, so I'll follow this up in a later blog.

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