Special interest

This fascinating, charming and ultra-rare motorcycle comes from the early days of VincentHRD manufacture.

When young Harrow old boy and Cambridge undergraduate Philip Vincent (PCV – the C stood for Conrad), who had his own clear ideas about how he would make his own motorcycle, secured parental backing (his father owned a successful cattle farm in Argentina) to start his own marque, Torrens (Arthur Bourne) of The Motor Cycle advised the teenager to buy an established name. As a long-time admirer of Howard Davies and his notable achievements, including being the 1925 Senior TT winner on his own-made machine, it was the HRD moniker PCV chose, acquired for £400. But the innovative new company didn’t get off to a flying start – just 24 Vincent-HRDs were sold in the first year (1928) of production.

In the book he wrote in 1978 called ‘Vincent – Fifty Years of the Marque’, PCV said of this actual motorcycle: “I road tested it in 1932 after the machine had been assembled in the original Stevenage factory.”

So this is a Vincent actually ridden by Mr Vincent.

The Model P has only recently returned to the road, so we didn’t take it too far, but in the few miles I did ride it, I came away impressed, though as much by the willing engine as the sprung frame. But what I will say is it steered fine and true, inspired confidence and was generally a lovely machine to ride. We didn’t get going too quickly, but I have been told that Python-engined examples are about the quickest of all the pre Second World War Vincent-HRD singles made and I can quite believe it. This one will want a few more miles on it, but once it settles down, it’s really going to be a cracking machine.