Thruxton Production Race 1962

The musics far out . The pre unit Bonnie seems to have a fair turn of speed . BSA was the only unit big twin then , didnt seem to e one in it .
 
Music
1. FBI by The Shadows (recent version)
2. Diamonds by Jet Harris
Both are from the fifties.
I remember the Thruxton races happening, when I was about twenty, and I've actually seen a genuine Triumph Thruxton Bonneville . It had rear sets and ace clubman drop bars , and was a limited edition. I think they were 1963 models with the two tone blue paint work. This is the first footage I've ever seen of racing at Thruxton. I think it was called the Thruxton Production TT. I've drastically re -edited it to make sense from it . It had no sound track, so I added the music.

1964 Triumph Thruxton Bonneville T120C/TT

Thruxton Production Race 1962
 
The Aerial Leader two stroke was very fast - most impressive . I never thought much of them, although the Brits use them in classic racing.
 
love me some shadows - good stuff!

acotrel said:
Music
1. FBI by The Shadows (recent version)
2. Diamonds by Jet Harris
Both are from the fifties.
I remember the Thruxton races happening, when I was about twenty, and I've actually seen a genuine Triumph Thruxton Bonneville . It had rear sets and ace clubman drop bars , and was a limited edition. I think they were 1963 models with the two tone blue paint work. This is the first footage I've ever seen of racing at Thruxton. I think it was called the Thruxton Production TT. I've drastically re -edited it to make sense from it . It had no sound track, so I added the music.
Click to expand...
 
Could have been the sixties - same era as the video clip anyway, and the right type of music. Glad you liked it, I got a thrill just out of getting the clip into decent shape, the original was all over the place . I would have loved to have found that clip in it's current form with good commentary. When I was a kid the Thruxton 500 was a big deal for us bikeys. It was the embodyment of a dream we all had about racing our cafe racers in the real deal.

This video clip is pretty accurate about what it was like back then. I think the young guys these days have been cheated out of some magnificent fun. We used to know what REAL risk taking was about:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-NsYKM0 ... re=related

SPEED KILLS ? What a load of crap ! !
 
We had a chap bring his Matchless 500 along to the club last year and talk about his racing career. He spoke of the 1958 Thruxton 500, I knew about this as I have a 1958 T110 ( now in bits) and knew that Mike Haliwood raced at that meet. Turns out this chap David Morely was in the same race, pretty cool I thought.
They had big nads riding those pre unit Triumphs fast with the swingarm pivoted around a down tube and those flimsy forks.
Still apparently Mike could ride anything..... I like the story where him and Ago swapped what were identical bikes ( MV's...?) and Mike was faster, according to Ago his bike was nicely set up and Mikes was not.
 
If you read the stuff about the MV Evoluzione 500-3. The replicas have fork yokes set up to Ago's particular specification. From what he's said in interviews, the bike was a much better package than the Honda 500. It seems he would brake up to the corners , then power around them. To be able to do that the bike must steer on the throttle i.e. oversteer under power. One thing I've learned from 12 years of racing, and that is the bike must do something for you. You can't do it all yourself - If it is set up right , it is easy to be fast. One thing I noticed about Wayne Gardner's riding, and Mike might have been the same - It doesn't matter to them how much out of shape the bike gets , they know they can recover. If you put someone like that on a perfectly set up racing bike, they will be extremely fast. Ago probably doesn't ride like that. Mike was probably more like Phil Read - a bit more aggro.

Have a look at Gardner on Fred Walmsley's BSA - there is no such thing as a 'racing line ' ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9i4ssiDsRY

This is the bike in this video clip:

Thruxton Production Race 1962
 
23.06.1956...Thruxton 9 hour race in which Percy Tait and Keith, pictured, won the 750cc class....

Thruxton Production Race 1962


Hailwood was 58 ? on the T110 . flexi flyer .

Thruxton Production Race 1962


Mike Hailwood aux 200 miles moto de Thruxton sur une Triumph.

The front end is more the problem , and steering head . The Engine plates / gearbox help ty in the swing arm pivot . A extra two bolts
down there to the subframe in 60 / 62 . And the forks are shorter & stiffer & the steering head is not a problem . Major issue is on
bumps / ripples / undulations . Primarilly on the ols single loop frame .Subframe on thats suss too , braceing wise .So theres a differance
Not all pre units are created equal .
 
Triumph missed out marketing the 1959 Twin carb T110 as the Thruxton or MHR... :D
As a road bike the T110 is ok as it only has about 40 HP.....I can't imagine riding it for 500 miles around a track ...I couldn't see Rossi or Stoner riding one as well as Mr Hailwood....he was Da Man.
 
There are still a lot of 6 hour and 8 hour races, which you don't hear much about.
Suzuka is the THE BIG ONE, isn't it. ?
And some very good riders - who you don't hear much about.

The Japanese loved Wayne Gardner in these, some years back, apparently a very determined rider = win, or bust....
 
Brian Setchell, said to be on the winning Norton one year.
So could you buy a bike like this from Nortons ??

Love da straps holding the mufflers on - a known problem in endurance races...


Thruxton Production Race 1962
 
If you look at about 3:47 in the video clip you can see a Norton 88ss go by, one of which took second overall ahead of ALL other 650s and first in it's class, with it's two-tone fuel tank. I would say as much or more of an accomplishment than the 650 bike.

I have heard that a dolphin fairing was an option for the Norton Dominators at some point in the early 60s, but I never saw any factory literature supporting that claim.

One of the bikes in the video has a dolphin fairing, so someone was smart enough to have it listed for their bike.

For 1961 and 1962 the 88ss had a manual advance k2fc magneto, the only Norton twin so equipped besides the Nomad Scrambler. In one of Roy Bacon's books, which he had help with from some factory people and the Norton records etc., he states that only 175 of these 88ss bikes went out altogether. Various sanctioning bodies requiring a minimum number available to the public to make them legal for racing.

This is why you will find a few 88ss bikes in the USA, Berliner had to import them beside the 650 and 750 bikes so that they would have something to race against BSA Goldstars etc. in AMA racing, which demanded that race bikes were "production". It is odd that the AMA let the Berliner's import and race the three "Daytona 88" bikes which were stuffed full of Domiracer and Manx engine and chassis bits, but it happened.....

Anyway thanks for the historic video, even though the resolution looks bad, it is still a great piece of history.
 
Sorry about the quality of the video. It was edited from stuff owned by British Pathe which was pretty mixed up. When I first saw it, it had no sound track and no sequence . I edited it because movies of racing other than the IOM TT is very rare from that period. The Thruxton 500 was the great inspiration for a lot of us who had cafe racers back then. I know I'm on a bit of a nostalgia kick, but I love the result of my editing, even if it infringes copyright . It is worth the risk.
 
beng said:
If you look at about 3:47 in the video clip you can see a Norton 88ss go by, one of which took second overall ahead of ALL other 650s and first in it's class, with it's two-tone fuel tank. I would say as much or more of an accomplishment than the 650 bike.

I have heard that a dolphin fairing was an option for the Norton Dominators at some point in the early 60s, but I never saw any factory literature supporting that claim.

One of the bikes in the video has a dolphin fairing, so someone was smart enough to have it listed for their bike.

For 1961 and 1962 the 88ss had a manual advance k2fc magneto, the only Norton twin so equipped besides the Nomad Scrambler. In one of Roy Bacon's books, which he had help with from some factory people and the Norton records etc., he states that only 175 of these 88ss bikes went out altogether. Various sanctioning bodies requiring a minimum number available to the public to make them legal for racing.

This is why you will find a few 88ss bikes in the USA, Berliner had to import them beside the 650 and 750 bikes so that they would have something to race against BSA Goldstars etc. in AMA racing, which demanded that race bikes were "production". It is odd that the AMA let the Berliner's import and race the three "Daytona 88" bikes which were stuffed full of Domiracer and Manx engine and chassis bits, but it happened.....quote]

Here in the UK the A.C.U. were, I think, very flexible with the rule book regarding production race bikes. It really depended on the race scrutineers interpretation of the rule book and what he/she could see with their eyes, if your bike was presented at scrutinizing with a kick-starter and lights, it could have a full race cam and close ratio gearbox; who was to know :?: There could be a lot of optional extras listed by the factory, or for some factories, naff all. Later on, the race scrutineers got a bit wiser on policing the bikes when they turned up themselves with the manufactures list of optional extras, some factories came as 3 A4 pages long.
The dolphin fairings were not made by the factories and were supplied by Avon, Churchgate Mouldings, amongst others, in the early 1960s, they were allowed on proddy bikes, whether it was listed as an optional extra or not- see what I meant about the rule book :?:
In 1962 the Thruxton circuit in Wilshire was almost 10mph faster than the previous year. The chief reason was the revised circuit first used in Easter 1962 in which Windy Corner slow left and right hand bends were replaced by one fast right-hander.
The 500 Norton in second place finished Norton 500 was ridden by R.Ingam & F. Swift, third place was a privately entered 500 Velocette ridden by E.F.H. Boyce & T. Phillips, the same Tom Phillips who finished third in the I.O.Man TT on Norton’s works 500 Domiracer, I belive.
As practically all the bikes entered were either dealer or privately owned we wondered at the time who was doing the most to promote the bike model, the dealers who entered at their own expense or the bike manufactures who took great delight in publishing a full page advert in the motorcycle press at that time when their bike won :!:
I took great delight at the time in following Honda’s so called “Black Bomber” being entered in the 500 miler and always getting beaten by the Geoff Donkin’s entered Velo Thruxton. Except one year when the Velocette broke down due to Magneto failure, (shades of Lucas Prince of darkness) that was the only time the Black Bomber won the 500 class.
Norton had ceased making the 500 Domi by 1965.
Click to expand...
 

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