Design office accident results in world’s fastest production motorcycle

In 1936 Vincent were making a 500cc single cylinder engine but aspired to something more powerful. How did the V-twin come about? Designer Phil Irving explained in his autobiography: ‘Quite by accident, when a drawing of the Comet was overlaid by a reversed tracing of the same engine in such a way that the cylinders formed a compact V-twin for which few new components would be required except mainly for another crankcase.’ Long days in the factory allowed the Vincent V-twin to be displayed at that year’s Motorcycle Show. Vincent’s V-twin was soon being advertised as The World’s Fastest Production Motorcycle.