'The Son of the Moto Vincent', ex-Gordon Colquhoun, Vincent 'Black Lightning'

Frame no. RC/R/6120
Engine no. 1682/2

· 'The Son of the Moto Vincent'
· Bike built by Gordon Colquhoun himself
· Unique Vincent historically significant

Previewing at the Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Please contact [email protected] for scheduling.

Gordon Colquhoun was well known in Vincent and sprinting circles for building Vincent-based motorcycles of particular note. First and probably one of his most important creation was the 'The Moto-Vincent' with engine F10AB/1/1682, currently sitting in a private museum in the United Kingdom.

The 'Moto-Vincent' that featured a twin-cylinder Vincent-engined sprinter with Charlie Rous at the handlebar recorded tremendous success returning first or second place finishes at every event entered between 1955 and 1960. No surprise since the heart of the bike was already fueled by victory - indeed, the engine of the 'Moto-Vincent' was previously used for racing purposes by none other than Jack Surtees - father of two and wheeled racing world champion, John - before arriving in Colquhoun's hands in 1954.

The engine was assembled for Jack Surtees as a 'stop gap' while waiting for the Black Lightning crankcases around which the new bike would be built. As a side-note, that engine is considered a Black Lightning unit while not being black. Indeed, there were no black crankcases available at the Stevenage Factory when Jack Surtees placed his order, so he decided to go with white cases, which technically made this engine a White Lightning. Interestingly enough, Jack Surtees enlisted Charlie Rous as a sidecar passenger between 1948 and 1950 in both road racing and grass-track, thus, the latter was already accustomed to the engine when he rode it into the 'Moto-Vincent'.

Colqhoun used high-compression pistons with the idea to run on Alcohol, obviously aiming at having the most powerful bike possible for road-racing. However, in 1955, Alcohol fueling was not allowed on short-track racing so the bike had to be used for the first time at the Brighton Speed Trials in the sidecar class where it set a new course record right-away. After unsuccessful attempts with petrol, notably at Brands Hatch, the bike returned to Alcohol, even adding some Nitro into the mix in 1956! Racing in that category against other important motorcycles like George Brown's 'Nero' or Ernie Woods' big JAP-engined machine, the Moto-Vincent made a name for itself in Vincent racing annals. Afterwards, the bike was entered into various speed racing events and was even gifted a turbocharger at some point, but these experiences were unfortunately not as successful as the previous ones. It was then decided to put the bike away, until it was reassembled about 23 years later.

It is believed by some that the second, 'Moto2', was another supercharged Vincent-engined bike but its current whereabouts are not known.

More recently, Bonhams had the chance to auction 'Moto3', which was built by Gordon in Dave Massam's commercial garage in Devon. Dave Massam rode the bike at various sprints for Gordon over many years as the Vincent was developed.

In 2000, Moto3 was bought directly from Gordon by classic motorcycle and sprinting enthusiast Roger Pales. Roger further developed the Vincent over the next 15 years until it achieved a quarter-mile terminal speed of over 100mph (something of a landmark). He added the magnificent fairing, a work of art handmade by craftsman/artist Carl Neville to a standard rarely found today. Moto3 last ran competitively at the Brighton Speed Trials in 2015 where it performed impeccably.

Following a 350 Manx Hillclimber built by Colquhoun his friend Dennis Loveday suggested a good clean-up of the workshop. Having accumulated a cache of significant parts, especially between 1954 and 1961, a crazy idea came to Colqhoun when he unearthed a box full of important Vincent components – building an almost as-new Black Lightning, since most of these parts were from a factory-built 1949 machine, and recreating the original post-1960 'Moto-Vincent'.
As Colquhoun launched himself into that ambitious plan, he needed help from few Vincent-friends. He got reconditioned cylinder heads from his son Graham, wheels from Chas Guy at Conway Motors, got lent few important parts to copy through Colin Thew at Aston Martin, a magneto from Ron Lewis, etc... As Gordon said himself 'But I must say there were times when the aggro and delays in obtaining unobtainable parts did get me down [...] But now that it is finished, it looks marvelous [...] Well worth all the trouble and the pain'.

Along with copies from a Classic Racer article where Charlie Rous explained the story, a letter from Gordon Colquhoun confirms the project (and the difficulty of realizing it) and the specifications of the bike coming back to the petrol-non-supercharged Moto-Vincent notably using die cast crank cases K49 used in a world record attempt, 9 to 1 pistons and rebuilt Lucas magneto. As a tribute to the original Moto-Vincent F10AB/1/1682, the 'Son of the Moto Vincent' as Colquhoun calls it, is engine-stamped 1682/2.

Not only does this bike look like a piece of Art, it is also historically significant as part of the Vincent story, having been built, as it was, by Gordon Colquhoun himself as a 'Moto-Vincent' reincarnate.