Bonhams Stafford sale
A whopper of a sale from Bonhams will be spread over three consecutive days (July 2-4, 2021) at the Stafford showground.
An AJS 497cc E90 ‘Porcupine,’ previously owned by postwar AJS works rider Ted Frend, is being offered for the first time at auction in the Bonhams Summer Stafford Sale on July 2, 2021, with an estimate of £250,000-300,000.
The E90’s reputation was made as the first motorcycle to win the 500cc World Championship in the series’ debut year of 1949, carrying Frend’s fellow works rider Les Graham to his (and AJS’s) first and only world title. Dubbed the Porcupine by the era’s motorcycle press due to its distinctive spiked ‘head’ finning, the E90 remains the sole twin-cylinder machine to have won world motorcycling’s flagship series.
Just a handful of E90s were built by the British firm, purely for its works team. Frend was the first rider to win on the Porcupine, at the 1947 Hutchinson 100 race. Development on the E90 continued over the next couple of years, while the motorcycle picked up 18 world speed records and a number of podium finishes before reaching its 1949 zenith. Graham won two of the six championship races, the Swiss and Ulster Grand Prix, securing the rider’s trophy, while team-mate Bill Doran rode to victory in Belgium to ensure AJS’s manufacturer’s title.
Frend, who left the AJS team in 1950, finished his racing career in 1954 to concentrate on his sheet metal business. He maintained that the Porcupine’s glory year was 1949, not just for its World Championship win, but also for holding its own against the more powerful rival Gileras and early MV motorcycles. He said: “At
Spa, I managed third place, splitting the Gileras. Masetti, Pagani [Gilera riders] and I were the first to average over 100mph for a full Grand Prix.”
The motorcycle offered was found as a collection of parts in the estate of Ted Frend when he died in
2006. It was his friend and neighbour Ken Senior who acquired the Porcupine and other motorcycle-related possessions from the executors, including Ted’s TT trophies, also offered in the Summer Stafford Sale. Senior oversaw the Porcupine’s rebuild, with missing parts custom-made.
The Porcupine leads the Ken Senior Collection of 90 plus motorcycles to be offered on Friday, July 2, at the three-day Summer Stafford Sale. This is just a quarter of the near 400-strong collection of ‘everyman’ classics that Ken Senior amassed in his lifetime.
The Bonhams Summer Stafford Sale makes a welcome return to the International Classic MotorCycle Show, and will offer in excess of 650 lots, comprising important collectors’ motorcycles, important early bicycles, spares and memorabilia over three days from July 2-4.
From the National Motorcycle Museum, there comes three Brough-Superiors (including a rare 500cc ohv V-twin) and a fore-and-aft Brough flat-twin, a trio of racing Excelsiors (including a Mechanical Marvel) and several sidecar machines and forecars, including a pair of Martinsydes and the unusual JAP-powered SEAL.
Other sale highlights include a 1940 Brough Superior 1096cc 11-50, estimate £60,000-75,000. It was the last Brough Superior 11-50 to have left the Nottingham factory, offered from single-family, long-term ownership, and to be sold without reserve.
Well-known in MV Agusta club circles, the late Ron Cody, a former sports car racer and engineer, turned to his passion for building up and restoring his collection of Italian machines as a retirement hobby. This collection offers 48 motorcycles, including many examples of MV Agustas, as well as other Italian marques.
More than 10 motorcycles are offered from the stable of a lifelong Norton dedicated collector. The collection also includes more than 150 lots of mostly Norton prewar spares, from engines and gearboxes to pie-crust tanks.
The sale will be a traditional live auction, welcoming bidders back into the saleroom, though supported online.
Visit www.bonhams.com/summersale to preview the lots on offer. The full lot listing will be published in early June.