Motoring News

The Race Retro 2010 countdown has already started, and motorcycle enthusiasts have plenty to see at this year’s show, held at Stoneleigh Park, Coventry from 12th to 14th March, including a new British contender for the motorcycle Land Speed Record.

This August the Angelic Bulldog team travels to Bonneville, where it is hoping to smash the 400mph barrier and bring the motorcycle Land Speed Record back to the UK for the first time since 1937. The current record of 360.913mph over a kilometre was set in 2008 by American Rocky Robinson riding his machine, named Ack-Attack.

Using a six and a half-metre long ‘streamliner’ powered by a 2.3-litre supercharged 700-horsepower engine, Angelic Bulldog project boss and rider Gabriel Uttley is hoping to bring the crown back to these shores. It’ll be displayed at Race Retro, giving enthusiasts a chance to get a glance of this rapid two-wheeler.

For rapid racing bikes the International Historic Racing Organisation is serving up four treats from its recently-created IHRO Class 2, which targets pre-1972 multi-cylinder Grand Prix machines and replicas. Four bikes are on display including a Yamaha 350 and a Konig 500, which used a two-stroke motorboat engine!

The internationally-acclaimed Sammy Miller Museum is showing two Nortons – a 1956 Model F 350 and a 1960 350cc Lowboy. Both demonstrate Norton’s technical foresight, the Model F featuring a five-speed gearbox while the frame carried the engine oil. The Lowboy features a lowered-frame design, which aimed to minimalise wind drag, but wasn’t the success it was hoped to be.

Race Retro will also pay tribute to 60 years of Norton with a stunning display of motorcycles as well as having famous racers from the past fifty years on hand to talk about the bikes’ finest hour with Race Retro motorcycle MC Steve Parrish.

And if you are looking to buy, H&H Auctions will have a private collection of 50 motorcycles up for grabs including rare Nortons and an early Harley Davidson.

Also making a more than welcome return is the Ken Fox Troupe Wall of Death, who brings another side of motorcycling to Race Retro. Using Indian and early Honda twins, Ken and his riders continue to defy the force of gravity. 

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