Formerly the property of Kenneth Neve OBE and Alain de Cadenet, 1929 Brough Superior 995cc SS100 'JTOR'

• Supplied new in July 1929 to J A R Sexton of Southwest London
• Formerly owned by Kenneth Neve, OBE and Alain de Cadenet
• Bentley & Draper spring frame
• Retains its original frame, engine, gearbox and fuel tank
• 'Garage find' condition
• Recorded with DVLA and HPi (last logbook issued 1984)
Legendary superbike of motorcycling's between-the-wars 'Golden Age', Brough Superior – 'The Rolls-Royce of Motorcycles' - was synonymous with high performance, engineering excellence and quality of finish. That such a formidable reputation was forged by a motorcycle constructed almost entirely from bought-in components says much for the publicity skills of George Brough. But if ever a machine was more than the sum of its parts, it was the Brough Superior.

W E Brough's machines had been innovative and well engineered, and his son's continued the family tradition but with an added ingredient - style. The very first Brough Superior MkI of 1919 featured a saddle tank - an innovation not adopted by the rest of the British industry until 1928 - and the latter's broad-nosed, wedge-profiled outline would be a hallmark of the Nottingham-built machines from then on. Always the perfectionist, Brough bought only the best available components for his bikes, reasoning that if the product was right, a lofty price tag would be no handicap. And in the 'Roaring Twenties' there were sufficient wealthy connoisseurs around to prove him right. One such was T E Lawrence – 'Lawrence of Arabia' – who owned several Broughs and was killed riding an SS100.

Introduced in 1922, the JAP-powered SS80 achieved instant fame when a racing version ridden by George became the first sidevalve-engined machine to lap Brooklands at over 100mph. With the new SS80's performance threatening to put the overhead-valve MkI in the shade, it was decided to completely redesign the latter. The result was the legendary SS100. First shown to the public in 1924, the SS100 employed an entirely new overhead-valve 980cc JAP v-twin engine. A frame of duplex cradle type was devised for the newcomer, which soon after its launch became available with the distinctive, Harley-Davidson-influenced, Castle front fork patented by George Brough and Harold 'Oily' Karslake. And just in case prospective customers had any doubts about the SS100's performance, each machine came with a written guarantee that it had been timed at over 100mph for a quarter of a mile - a staggering achievement at a time when very few road vehicles of any sort were capable of reaching three-figure speeds.

With this level of performance available in road trim, it was only to be expected that the SS100 would make an impact on the race track, particularly the ultra-fast Brooklands oval, and the exploits of Brough Superior riders - among them Le Vack, Temple, Baragwanath, Fernihough and Pope - did much to burnish the marque's image. When Brooklands closed forever at the outbreak of WW2, Noel Pope's Brough Superior held both the sidecar and solo lap records, the latter at an average speed of 124.51mph.

Success in an altogether different branch of motorcycle sport resulted in one of Brough's most iconic models: the SS100 'Alpine Grand Sports' or 'AGS'. Introduced in September 1925 for the 1926 season, this new machine took its name from the Austrian Alpine Trial, the 1925 event having been contested by a number of SS100s, one ridden by George Brough himself, resulting in the award of six cups, including one for 'Best Performance'.

This Bentley & Draper spring-framed SS100 was specified new with the JAP JTOR 8/50hp long-stroke racing engine. According to Peter Miller, writing in his book Brough Superior The Complete Story, the JTOR "gave little extra power (than the KTOR) but significantly better top-end performance". 'TV 496 was' originally supplied to Mr John Alfred Redding Sexton of Southwest London in July 1929. Born in Greenwich, the son of a market gardener, Sexton served as a Lance Corporal in the Machine Gun Corps during the Great War. By the early 1920s the family was trading as fruiterers and greengrocers in First Avenue, Mortlake, while by 1939 Sexton had become a shopkeeper and garage proprietor at Chessington Stores, Surrey. He put the Brough up for sale in the 16th April 1931 issue of The Motor Cycle, stating it had covered fewer than 4,000 miles.

The machine is not recorded again until the 1960s when it was acquired by the late Kenneth Neve, OBE of Cheshire, one of the towering figures of the Vintage motoring scene in Britain. A former President of the Vintage Sports Car Club and founder of its Northern Section, Neve was a passionate custodian and competitor, owning a collection that included 30-98 Vauxhalls, Bugattis and Brough Superiors, which he also campaigned at Brooklands.

In 1975 Neve sold this SS100 to racing driver, collector, and broadcaster Alain de Cadenet. A connoisseur of fine machinery and a noted Brough Superior enthusiast, de Cadenet took care to preserve the motorcycle in the condition he acquired it. Remarkably, it still retains its original frame, engine, gearbox, and fuel tank. This SS100 is offered with its original works record card listing its specification. While there is no UK registration document offered with the machine, it is recorded with both the HPI and DVLA, the last logbook having been issued on 14th March 1984.

Today, the Brough remains in wonderfully evocative 'garage find' condition: a significant and historic discovery, with provenance linking it to two giants of the Vintage motoring world.
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