‘He was a genius...’
Peter Williams remembered TRIBUTE
Peter Williams, who has died at the age of 81, fought a heroic rearguard action at an important crossroads of motorcycling history. Williams was a brilliant rider and a genius engineer, with an open mind, a clear vision of the future and a great flair for innovation. Cast wheels, disc brakes and monocoque chassis were just three of the technologies he pioneered.
His career as rider/engineer peaked in the late 1960s and early 1970s, as the centre of the motorcycling world shifted from Britain to Japan and two-stroke conquered four-stroke on the racetrack.
He was a four-stroke TT winner and a two-stroke grand prix winner who did great work at Norton, at the very moment the legendary British marque collapsed under the weight of Japanese competition. Williams – an affable, softly spoken man with a dry wit – was son of Jack Williams, venerable engineer and race department chief at AMC, home to the AJS and Matchless brands. His mum Thora also came from a motorcycling family. Her father Tom Bullus took first place in one of Britain’s first motorcycle events, the 1903 Edinburgh to Bradford time trial. No wonder he developed a love for two wheels and a need to make them go faster.
His first engineering project was his own bicycle. Williams drilled holes in everything he could to reduce weight, experimented with different centres of gravity and converted the front end to a leading-link layout, copying the beautifully designed Moto Guzzi singles that dominated 250 and 350cc grand prix racing in the early 1950s.
Williams was a self-taught engineer, absorbing everything his father told him and then working things out for himself. He started
‘Williams was a self-taught engineer, absorbing everything’
racing in the spring of 1964 and that summer contested his first Manx Grand Prix. Just two years later he was grand prix racing.
He made his GP debut at Monza in September 1966, riding a Matchless G50 single against Mike Hailwood’s Honda four and Giacomo Agostini’s MV Agusta triple. This was the day Hailwood lost his battle for the 500cc world championship when his RC181 broke an exhaust valve. With Hailwood out, Williams finished second to Ago. Not a bad debut. Hailwood and Williams shared great mutual respect. Hailwood was fully aware of the youngster’s talents and asked Honda to sign him to be his teammate.
Williams’ scientific approach to riding was unusual at the time and gave him a real advantage over most of his rivals. His technique was graceful and flowing, always working with the laws of physics rather than against them.
Around this time he began his first great engineering project – working with sponsor Tom Arter to coax more speed from the ageing G50, already almost a decade old. The Arter Matchless became a rolling laboratory for new technology – most importantly, cast wheels and disc brakes – which extended the British single’s life way past its sell-by date. In 1968 Williams equipped
‘The Arter Matchless became a rolling laboratory for new technology’