Brooklands Racer reimagined

One of the more unusual entries for the forthcoming Charterhouse auction of Classic and Vintage Motorcycles is the WadkinSnaith Brooklands Sprint Special. Never heard of it? That’s because this is a one-off machine, built from scratch to resemble a 1920s Brookland sprint motorcycle.

Designed, created and built by specialist engineer Carl Wadkin-Snaith, the bike took more than four years to build and was completed in 2016. No castings were used for the single-cylinder 10.6:1 compression engine and foot-operated five-speed gearbox, as all components were machined using nonCNC machines, with the only proprietary parts being the piston and crankshaft. But this is no mere showpiece, with the 500cc motorcycle having performed successful and attracting attention at a number of events. Carl is no stranger to sprinting – you may remember a few years back that he raced ‘The Fang,’ a supercharger methanol burning 1975 Honda CB500T.

If I remember rightly, his daughter also drag raced a Honda Blackbird.

The Charterhouse auction will be held at the Haynes International Motor Museum at Sparkford, Somerset, on June 30, where the estimate for the glorious WadkinSnaith Brooklands Sprint Special is £18,000-£22,000.

Sadly the OBM Shed Biscuit Fund won’t run to that. Shame, because we would really like it!