Who here has seen the James Hunt/Niki Lauda Formula 1 racing pic by Ron Howard,
Rush?
I liked it quite a bit. Here's what one of the subjects had to say about the movie and the other principal character:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/film/rush/niki-lauda-interview/
James Hunt was a Formula 1 driving champion. He got a career boost from a young member of the English House of Lords, Lord Hesketh. Apart from a sponsor of a Formula 1 racing team, Lord Hesketh also owned a motorcycle manufacturing concern, bearing his name, which produced a DOHC V-twin, 1000 cc. The bike came as a naked and in a faired, grand-touring style, which was called the Venom Vampire.
Years-ago, in Ft. Lauderdale, there was a bike night at a popular restaurant called 'Fuddrucker's.' Hundreds of bikes showed-up during the evening, and impromptu wheelie contests would occur in-front of the location. There were condos and residential rentals close-by, and they hated the crowd and the noise.
It was one of those places where guys and girls would bring their rides to show them-off, and to meet, with groups of riders leaving from there to go to deserted superhighways by the Everglades, to run top-speed contests. Some people wouldn't bother going that far, and there were always riders driving like crazy people on the surface arterial roads, and on the interstates leading to and from the restaurant.
The variety of bikes you could see there was amazing, you could see Iron-Curtain bikes, two-stroke twins and singles; all the latest sport bikes of whatever displacement the riders could afford, and some bearing pavement rash, zip-tied-together fairings, or fairings removed, and cobbled-together headlights and instruments; vintage bikes from Europe, the UK, and the USA, and of-course lots of Japanese bikes; cruisers, dual-purpose bikes caked in Everglades mud, even rat bikes.
One of the guys I used-to run-into occasionally was an attorney from Miami FL, named Pedro. He was a criminal attorney. He had a few bikes, but one that I always was glad to inspect up-close was his Hesketh. Not just
any Hesketh, but a Venom Vampire, the fully-faired GT bike. It was a copper/brown color, and I thought it was the most-interesting thing in there, and probably one of the most-rare. There was a guy who used to show-up on a Honda RC-30...
The Hesketh was a wide-angle V-twin. As Kevin Cameron said, "the British engine makers use too-many fasteners on their engine castings," and the Hesketh seemed to be proof of that, The cam cases seemed to have a fastener every inch and a half along their perimeter. The engine cases, likewise. It reminded me of seeing a Rolls-Royce aviation engine used during WW II, the
Merlin. Look at the cam covers of a
Merlin and you will know what Kevin Cameron was talking-about. Before the helicopter turbines invaded Unlimited hydroplane racing, big WW II aviation engines were what powered boats like
Miss Budweiser, owned by a Florida Anheuser-Busch distributor, Bernie Little. I saw those race at the Miami Marine Stadium, on Biscayne Bay, and to see the small-diameter props they used it amazed me to see the speeds the Unlimiteds were capable of. Maybe fifteen inches in diameter, with razor straight edges.
So, Pedro would come up from Dade County (Miami) to the Ft. Lauderdale Fuddrucker's, and often on the Hesketh. It's I think the second one I've ever seen, and the only faired example. As I mentioned, Pedro was an attorney, a criminal attorney, and the life in Miami FL metro area in the 1970's and into the 1990's was a real hotbed of drugs, disposable income, and conspicuous consumption.
Miami Vice wasn't just a tv show, it was how things were, even-if Frank Zappa wasn't busted by Crockett and Tubbs for selling
weasel dust. Scarface was not far-from the truth. An example, there was so-much money flowing through the Federal Reserve banking system in Miami, there were negative flows elsewhere in the country. The Miami skyline seemed to sprout overnight, dozens of high-rises every year, year after year. And Miami Beach, "South Beach" which was home to jet-setters, movie stars, and business owners (don't ask questions about, "what
kind of business?") became world-famous, and a tourist destination where supermodels had to elbow one-another aside to be noticed by the
paparazzi.
Pedro the Miami criminal attorney had a client who needed quick cash to defend himself in a criminal court of law, and the Hesketh changed hands, and the title now was Pedro's. This was the era of the Ducati 851 Superbike, the 888 SPO, and soon, the 916. But the English Bulldog, the symbol of the rugged nature of the protector of the British reputation for fleet motorcycles, borne of Edwin
Turner's Speed Twin, pre-WW II, the Brough Superiors ridden by TE Lawrence, better-known as
Lawrence of Arabia; the Norton Manx and the Matchless G50, and the mighty HRD Vincent Black Shadow and Black Lightning, their existences were precedents for the Hesketh, the rugged bulldog of British motorcycling.
Unfortunately, if you've seen the movie
Rush then you know Lord Hesketh spent himself into near-bankruptcy sponsoring the Formula 1 team, and starting a motorcycle company. I haven't googled the total production of all the Hesketh designs, but I doubt it was even 1,000. So, Pedro's Hesketh Venom Vampire was one of a small number produced, and very collectible.
I haven't looked at the new Hesketh design, after I finish this, I'll take a look. I hope the new line has more longevity than the original Hesketh did.
