Alistair Laurie Triumph

The photograph at the head of this blog is of a Triumph Trident engined special built by Scotsman Alistair Laurie in about 1983. Mr Laurie made his own Rob North styled frame to create this thing of beauty.

He also took Colin Chapman’s mantra of just adding lightness to new levels, making everything as thin as possible and then drilling holes in it. It is rumoured that he once took a pair of magnesium Offenstadt wheels back to Tony Foale & asked him to machine them down to make them lighter.

Scouring the web I have found photographs of similar Laurie triples in green & also red colour schemes.  I don't know if it is this bike evolving each year or if he produced a few of them . The year I photographed this machine I also spotted this one so I suspect it may be the latter.

I believe that with various trick engine bits & a 998 capacity the goal was to break the 200mph barrier. The dustbin fairing would certainly aid the aerodynamics but he must have had sleepless nights about the additional weight.  


Form following function rather well here I think:

Bristol Auto Italia Street Festival

The old part of the city was taken over again this year by the Italians.  Why can't it be like this every Saturday?

Stingray, Stingray...

No, not the world in 2065 according to Gerry Anderson but the unfeasibly good looking race car from the land of the big cubic inch.

Nice use of blue:

Patina

In these days of the over restored investment pieces  historic vehicles this Bugatti (Type unknown I'm afraid) is a breath of fresh air.

Apart from the obvious history associated with this car there is an honesty which would be lost if it was ever  wheeled into a restorer's workshop.   It would almost be a shame to wash it!

Rickman Cafe Racer

Snapped on the Douglas Prom, Isle of Man TT races probably 1983. They don't get much better than this.

Honda CBX 1000

If you know about bikes you already know that the CBX1000 had a 6 cylinder 24 valve engine which produced a tad over 100 bhp. Chicken feed by today’s standards but enough to make 130 mph a real possibility.

Never mind that - how great they look right now in 2011? These two were snapped at the Isle of Man TT races back in 1983:
　

If you really had to go fast on a CBX then a Moto Martin chassis was probably the way to go. The bodywork has not aged as well as the original but I could still live with one of these in the garage. This one was taken at the TT in 1981 on a Kodak 110 format camera.  You can tell right?

　
　

Goodwood Revival style

Say no more..

Rattle & suck!

This is just a stock photograph to test out my new blog.  Taken in the Solent (UK) you don't want to know how much fuel these 2-stoke bad boys drink every hour.