Well that’s another one down. To celebrate, today we are broadcasting in stereo. Just buy two copies of The Weekend Australian at the correct price of $4 each and place them at either end of the dining room table. Sit in the middle and you’ll be able to hear our WART Beemer drive from one end to the other with Michael McMichael still shouting at the GoPro. If you can’t hear it then keep buying more papers until you do.
Anyway, the good news for the three of you who ride motorcycles is that Aston Martin and Brough Superior are going to hand-make 100 track-only bikes at Thierry Henriette’s Boxer factory in Toulouse, France. Look, I know this is a bad time to talk you through complex information but it would only be worse if I tried to do it next Saturday when you will still be belly-up in the bunk after New Year’s Eve. So here goes.
Up until the second big one, George Brough made the Rolls-Royce of motorbikes. In fact, his workers wore white gloves much like they do at the Sultan’s BMW service shop in Stepney.
His most famous creation was the SS100. It was not only good for 100mph (160km/h), George personally drove everyone at that speed and then signed a certificate saying this bike cracked the ton and then charged about an average year’s wages for it. During the war Brough turned out plane parts and, after the war ended, there were no suitable engines so no more Brough bikes.
Two years ago, Nottingham’s Castle Rock Brewery turned out an English Session IPA named after George. Better than a knighthood! I must talk to Dr Tim Cooper about naming a beer after the King of the Kensi. Makes sense. Mick is an Australian aristocrat (ie, he can trace his ancestry all the way back to his father). Interestingly enough, I was by myself for a moment on Xmas Eve, so I opened a bottle of Cooper’s Sparkling. Suddenly I heard a voice say: “Hullo, how are you tonight?” I wasn’t worried. I thought it was probably just the drink talking.
Austria-based English ex-Ducati dealer Mark Upham bought the rights to the Brough Superior name in 2008. After turning out a few continuation models, he got together with Thierry Henriette at Boxer Design to turn out a new SS100. Like George’s original bikes, each one is made to order with a choice of three finishes. Under the seat is a 990cc engine putting out 75KW for a machine that only weighs 186kg. It’s good for 217km/h and yours for only $120k, which is cheaper than the $400k it would cost you for an old second-hand one of George’s.
The Aston bike is being built at Thierry’s Toulouse atelier with a V-twin turbocharged donk putting out 134KW in a 180kg machine. Look to pay close to $200k by the time you get it to Toorak.
Really, I think the only Australian buyer will be reader Martin Davis. Martin is a very serious bike person whose daily ride is a Honda 1000cc V-Twin, an exact copy of the 2001-02 World superbike winner. Martin and his young pal Bob Charlton regularly take their bikes and half a dozen (six) other youngish gentlemen through the Currumbin Valley and through the Tomewin twisties down to Murwillumbah and return. Martin and Bob are in their early eighties.
Anyway, the bad news in the Aston Brough story is that you’re betting on whether Aston Martin will still be in business or under a different owner by the time the bike hits the market. The company’s share price is down from 18 quid on IPO to the mid five quids on Xmas Eve. Aston Martin’s management has effectively given out two downgrades and taken on a lot of debt. We’ve heard this tune before.
In better news, the London Telegraph has named its 100 best cars ever made. Now, with Andrew English writing the list for a British rag you could bet on the 100 being overweight British Isles.
Topping the best car since time began is the Ford Model T (1908-27), yours for $25k. Then the 1974-83 VW Golf (a Giorgetto Giugiaro design). This model looks great and was built greater. Yours from $4k to a lot, lot more for a very original Mark 1. Of course, at five has to be one of the worst cars ever made, the 1948-57 Land Rover Series 1. They should pay you to take it away but one in really good condition will cost $40k. At 12 (should be No 1) showing Andrew’s anti-continental bias is the 1963-89 Porker 911. The 1959-61 Fezzer 250GT SWB is way down at 21 but the seriously good 1998 to 2004 Ford Focus is at 41.
Talking of great cars, if you’re a Corvette perv and an American citizen, then you can buy some tickets in the 36 Corvette raffle. Here’s the backstory: in 1988 VH1 was a music channel. It ran a dial-in promotion giving viewers the chance to win a collection of 36 Corvettes produced from 1953-89. One million punters rang in at $2 a call. Denny Amodeo, a New York chippie, won. Before he could pick up his prize, pop artist Peter Max offered serious cash and some of his paintings for the Vettes. Since Denny didn’t even have a carport, this sounded like a sweet deal. Pete stowed the Chevs in a parking garage and that’s where they’ve sat until the Heller and Spindler families bought them. Now they are restoring them and giving all of us the opportunity to own one.
We’re coming into the serious auction season so I thought I’d tell you a little cautionary tale. In December 1960, two-time Academy Award winner Elizabeth Taylor and then husband Eddie Fisher (she was married eight times, including twice to Richard Burton) bought a green Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud II Drophead Coupe. In 1978, builder Karl Kardell got it and spent a lot of money on a serious restoration. A few months ago it went up for auction, with New York auction house Guernsey’s suggesting a price of up to $3m. It sold for $721k, well below the $1m the last two Silver Clouds made. Well bought, but a big loss for the former owner.
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