1965 DMW TYPHOON

Chosen by: James Stensel, head of motorcycles UK

Sold at: The Spring Stafford sale 2011 Sale price: £19,550

One of the most fascinating, ‘what might have been’ projects of the ’60s. While bigger British firms BRM and Norton both announced plans to produce world-beating bikes for 500cc class road racing, little Sedgely-based DMW came up with this prototype. It was based on a pair of Villiers Starmaker engines – the power unit used in DMW’S Hornet road racer and scrambler. Joining the two engines on a common crank installed in custom-made Alpha cases raised the prospect of a potential 60-70bhp at a time when a good Manx Norton made around 52. A jackshaft between the Typhoon’s crank and a fivespeed Albion gearbox necessitated the engine running backwards. A Royal Enfield Interceptor clutch completed the basic spec and the prototype was shown at the 1965 Brighton Show.

In practice, severe vibration made the bike just about unrideable when tested by Jack Findlay and Bill Smith – though later experiments (from 1985) with 360°, 90° and 45° cranks eventually sorted the problem and produced 70bhp. So it could have been a contender back in the day...

The bike was last raced (in classic events) around the turn of the century, prior to being sold by Bonhams, but remains a fascinating slice of British road racing history.

“I have had the great pleasure of handling the sale of literally thousands of important machines over the years, so it’s incredibly difficult to choose a favourite. However, this bike is an often forgotten, but incredibly important, prototype in British racing motorcycle production history. The vendor was an absolute pleasure to work with and the machine found the perfect home and has since been put back to good use.” James Stensel