MY FEEDLY

For Sale: A Street-Legal 1977 Honda CB500 Race Bike

This Honda CB500 race bike was built in the 1970s by engineer Brian Brownrigg for Bolton-based rider Chris Hawkes, the bike won three separate championships in period, it was later lightly modified and registered for road use.

The 1970s were a time when the motorcycle world’s European old guard was being trounced by Japanese newcomers, upending decades of history and resulting in the rapid decline of the industry. Motorcycles like the Honda CB500 shown here were key to this success.

Fast Facts – A Road-Legal Honda CB500 Champion

The Honda CB500 was released in 1971 as the middleweight sibling to the larger Honda CB750. Both models were fitted with inline-four cylinder engines with a single overhead cam, two valves per cylinder, and an electric starter.
When it was released in Europe the CB500 was lauded by the press, its advanced engine produced power comparable to a 650cc twin, but it shared none of the leaks or reliability foibles of its British competitors.
For many motorcyclists the Honda CB750 was simply too big or too powerful, and so the lighter and less expensive CB500 was an ideal fit.
The Honda CB500 race bike you see here was used competitively in the UK in-period, winning three separate championships at Three Sisters and it led the Ace of Aintree championship for a time.

The Honda CB750: An Industry Transforming Superbike

The Honda CB750 was released in 1969 to meet demand from US dealers for a larger capacity motorcycle to better challenge the dominant bikes from companies like Harley-Davidson, Triumph, Norton, and BSA.

As with almost all race bikes of this type from the 1970s, this CB500 has a full fairing with a windscreen allowing for an optimal top speed down the straight.

What no one knew at the time was that this new model would trigger a tsunami in the motorcycle would that would topple many of the world’s once great marques, fundamentally changing the motorcycle landscape forever.

Thanks to the incredible success of the CB750, Honda developed a new model based on the same architecture, but aimed at achieving in the middleweight market what the CB750 had achieved in the heavyweight market.

The Honda CB500: Middleweight Perfection

This new motorcycle would be the Honda CB500. It was fitted with a new engine that looked a lot like its larger sibling, but used new block, barrel, and head castings, with all new internals.

Like its larger predecessor, the CB500 was an inline-four with a single overhead cam operating eight valves, two per cylinder. It was fitted with four carburetors and the engine was built using unit construction, with an electric starter and a front disc brake.

This engine now has a displacement of 550cc, it’s also fitted with a Yoshimura YH-2-1 camshaft, Honda CG pistons, a bank of four 20mm Mk2 Amal carburetors, and a Kibblewhite valve spring kit.

Power output was a respectable 50 bhp and the top speed was 115 mph, both excellent figures for a motorcycle with this displacement at the time.

The CB500 produced as much power as many larger 650cc engined motorcycles, but without any leaks and without the hassle of using a kickstarter to get it going everyday. The model quickly became a best-seller and it wasn’t long before they began being modified for use on race tracks.

Perhaps the most successful racing version of the CB500 was the one ridden by Bill Smith at the Isle of Man TT in 1973, he won the 500cc TT Production race, finishing 8.2 seconds ahead of second place finisher Stan Woods.

The 1977 Honda CB500 Race Bike Shown Here

The bike you see here is a highly modified Honda CB500, it was build by engineer and successful racer Brian Brownrigg for the Bolton-based rider Chris Hawkes.

This bike has a well stocked trophy cabinet, it won three separate championships at Three Sisters and led the Ace of Aintree championship among many other strong finishes.

Hawkes enjoyed some success at Aintree in the 500cc four-stroke Ace of Aintree championship and also raced at Cadwell Park. In 1982 the bike passed on to new hands, in the years after this it won three separate championships at Three Sisters and led the Ace of Aintree championship.

In the winter of 1982 the bike was given some significant mechanical servicing including a ported cylinder head, white metal shell bearings, and the crank was stripped in order for the connecting rods to be polished and balanced.

It’s now fitted with 20mm Mk2 Amal carburetors, a high-performance Yoshimura YH-2-1 camshaft, Honda CG pistons, a Kibblewhite valve spring kit, and a 56mm re-bore giving it a displacement of 550cc.

A few years later in 1997 the bike was registered for the road for the first time, it retains its road registration in the UK now which potentially makes it an ideal weekend bike for B-road adventures.

If you’d like to read more about this unusual CB500 or register to bid you can click here – it’s currently being offered for sale in a live online auction by Collecting Cars.

Images courtesy of Collecting Cars

The post For Sale: A Street-Legal 1977 Honda CB500 Race Bike appeared first on Silodrome.

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Barn Find: A De Tomaso Pantera Project Super Car

This is a 1972 De Tomaso Pantera that spent the last 20 years parked in the corner of a barn in Georgia before being rediscovered. The car is fitted with the correct 330 bhp 351 Ford Cleveland V8, 15” Campagnolo wheels, as well as front and rear spoilers.

The De Tomaso Pantera is an Italian-American mid-engined supercar that was first released in 1971, it was powered by a selection of reliable American V8s which means it’s vastly cheaper to run and maintain than its more exotic-engined peers.

Fast Facts – The De Tomaso Pantera

The De Tomaso Pantera was released in 1971, it was designed by American stylist Tom Tjaarda, it was powered by a mid-mounted Ford V8, and it had a steel monocoque chassis built in Italy.
De Tomaso was founded by Argentinian/Italian Alejandro de Tomaso, the company built a number of cars starting in 1959, the most prolific of which was the De Tomaso Pantera.
Whereas fellow Italian high-performance car manufacturers like Ferrari, Lamborghini, and Maserati all made their engines in-house, De Tomaso relied on reliable, inexpensive American V8s.
The 1972 De Tomaso Pantera project car you see here is from just the second year of production. It’s powered by the venerable 330 bhp 351 Ford Cleveland V8, power is sent to the rear wheels via a 5-speed transmission, the car also has four-wheel disc brakes and rack and pinion steering.

The De Tomaso Pantera

Of all the cars built by De Tomaso, the Pantera is undoubtably the most famous, and it was sold in the highest numbers – with over 7,200 built between 1971 and 1992.

Above Video: This episode of Jay Leno’s Garage discusses his own Pantera and the model’s history.

The name “Pantera” is Italian for “Panther,” it was chosen as the name for the model that would replace the earlier De Tomaso Mangusta, “Mangusta” meaning “Mongoose” in Italian.

Unlike the Mangusta with its steel backbone chassis, the Pantera used steel unibody architecture, as it was more modern, easier to mass-produce, and perhaps most importantly, it was stiffer.

Following in De Tomaso tradition the Pantera used an engine supplied by another manufacturer, Ford in this case, as well as a ZF 5-speed transmission, and many other components supplied by larger automakers.

This helped to keep costs down, and it also helped Pantera owners source spare parts easily and cheaply.

Due to this use of Ford engines and other components a deal was struck between De Tomaso and Ford which allowed Panteras to be sold in the United States through the network of Lincoln-Mercury dealers.

The interior of the Pantera was well-designed, though some modifications tend to be needed for drivers who are over 6 feet tall.

This deal both significantly increased potential sales for the car, whilst also meaning that Pantera owners could take their cars into the dealer for servicing and maintenance, without needing to find expensive exotic car specialists.

The Affordable Supercar

This combination of an American engine, a mass-produced ZF transmission, and many other bought it parts resulted in the Pantera being more affordable than any other mid-engined supercar in the world at the time of its release.

With its mid-mounted 351 cubic inch Ford Cleveland V8, the Pantera had 330 bhp at the time of its release. This put it on-par with cars like the Lamborghini Miura with 345 hp, the Porsche 911 Turbo with 330 bhp, the BMW M1 with 277 bhp, and the Ferrari BB 512 with 355 bhp.

In 1975 Ford made the decision to stop importing the Pantera, they had sold over 5,500 of them through dealerships by this time, and it was a crucial blow to De Tomaso. Unfazed by the loss of their biggest sales channel, De Tomaso would keep the car in production for over 20 years until into the early 1990s.

Much like the Italian Lamborghini Countach the Pantera was undated and upgraded over its production life, with the addition of increasingly aggressive body kits, wings, and uprated engines.

The mid-mounted 351 cubic inch Ford Cleveland V8 produces approximately 330 bhp, putting the Pantera squarely in supercar territory by the standards of its day.

Thanks in part to the lower original sticker price, the use of less-exotic engines, and far less brand awareness than cars from the likes of Ferrari and Lamborghini, the Pantera remains one of the most affordable supercars in the world today – with prices starting around the $80,000 USD mark for a good example or much less for a project car.

The Barn Find Pantera Project Car Shown Here

The car you see here was recently discovered buried deep in a barn in the backwoods of Georgia. It’s clear from the description and the images of the car that it’s going to need a full nut-and-bolt restoration, but for a person with the skills and experience it’ll likely be a rewarding project.

The seller explains that there are some significant rust areas as the barn roof was leaking over the top of the car, so anyone planning to take the car on will need to be very handy with a welder.

The car is in largely original condition with faded blue paintwork and white stripes with “Pantera” script on both sides. It’s riding on 5” Campagnolo wheels and it had spoilers fitted front and back.

In the engine bay you’ll find a correct 351 cubic inch Ford Cleveland V8 mated to a 5-speed ZF transmission, and at the rear you’ll find quad exhaust tips.

The car is currently for sale on Bring A Trailer, you can click here if you’d like to read more or register to bid.

Images courtesy of Bring A Trailer

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For Sale: An “Affordable” Ford Mustang-Based Batmobile

This Batmobile was built by Z cars in the United Kingdom using a 1965 Ford Mustang as the foundation. It has a fiberglass body, a spaceframe chassis, a 4-speed manual transmission, and a 380 bhp 5.7 liter Chevrolet small block V8.

Interestingly the original 1989 Batmobile was also built in England, it was based on a Chevrolet Impala chassis with a unique body designed by conceptual illustrator Julian Caldow and built by John Evans with his special effects team at Pinewood Studios.

Fast Facts – A Tim Burton Batmobile Re-Creation

In 1989 the Tim Burton film “Batman” was released, and the Batman universe would never be the same again. Burton’s art deco vision of Gotham city set the tone going forwards, and the jet-powered Batmobile became an overnight sensation.
The original Batmobile was built at Pinewood Studios in England to a unique design penned by Julian Caldow. The faux jet engine used some real Rolls-Royce jet engine components, and turbine blades from the British Harrier jump jet were used for the nosepiece.
Of all the Batmobiles that followed the Tim Burton Batmobile is still arguably the most famous, and it’s certainly the most influential.
The Batmobile replica you see here was built in England by the team at Z Cars. It’s based on a spaceframe chassis and 1965 Ford Mustang running gear, with a 380 bhp 5.7 liter Chevrolet small block V8 providing the power.

Reinventing The Batmobile

The first Batmobile that the world saw existed only in the pages of comic books, it wasn’t until the release of the 1943 serial film Batman, that the world saw a real Batmobile – it was a black 1939 Cadillac Series 75 convertible.

The design of the 1989 Batmobile would help set the tone for all Batmobiles going forwards, it’s still rated by many as the most memorable.

Later in the 1949 serial film Batman and Robin the two drove around in a 1949 Mercury.

In 1965 work began on what many consider to be the first real Batmobile, it was based on the one-off 1955 Lincoln Futura concept car and built by George Barris in just a few weeks.

This would be the car that was used in the 1966 Batman TV series starring Adam West as Bruce Wayne / Batman and Burt Ward as Dick Grayson / Robin.

The humorous and campy style of the 1960s Batman TV series and film was fundamentally altered when Tim Burton took over the franchise for his 1989 film Batman. The Burton Batman was far darker and more gritty than any that had come before, and his vision of an art deco Gotham paid tribute to the original comic book vision for the city.

The Batmobile that was developed for the 1989 film was also a fundamental shift in design, it was a long, low, and menacing vehicle with a centrally mounted jet engine, two large rear bat wings, and a fighter jet-like central passenger compartment with room for two under a sliding canopy.

The cockpit is nicely detailed. The driver and passenger sit in bucket seats under a sliding canopy, and there is no shortage of gauges or switch gear.

Two of these Batmobiles were originally built, one now sits on permanent display at the Peterson Automotive Museum in California and the other is owned by Batman producer John Peters, it lives at his Malibu home.

Building Your Own Batmobile

There are very few people who saw the 1989 Tim Burton film Batman and left the cinema without a desire to immediately own their own Batmobile.

This desire was stronger in some than in others, it was so strong in some that they went and set about building their own versions – typically using the running gear and engine from an American car, with a spaceframe chassis and a fiberglass body like the original.

Some of these replicas were exceedingly poorly made but others looked indistinguishable from the originals that were used on screen. Many were made road legal in various parts of the world and exhibited at shows, much to the delight of attendees.

The car is fitted with a 380 bhp 5.7 liter Chevrolet small block V8, power is sent to the rear wheels via a 4-speed manual transmission.

The Ford Mustang-Based Batmobile Shown Here

The Batmobile replica you see here was built by Z Cars in England, as mentioned above it was built on 1965 Ford Mustang running gear, with a spaceframe chassis, a hand-laid fiberglass body, and it’s powered by a 380 bhp 5.7 liter Chevrolet small block V8.

The stylized jet engine running down the middle of the car is not real of course, it does have a realistic looking exhaust however, as well as a spinning fan blade up front in the interest of making it look as real as possible.

The engine bay has been hot rodded, with flames on the valve covers, a mesh intake filter, and tubular steel headers.

Though not true to the original the interior has been well detailed, with an array of gauges, switches and levers, as well as a small yoke-style steering wheel. There is seating for two and the overhead canopy slides into place when the car is underway.

Original Batmobiles rarely come up for auction, and when they do they can fetch incredible sums of money. Well-built re-creations or replicas like this one offer all the glory with a substantially reduced, much more affordable cost – Likely just a few tens of thousands rather than the millions it would take to get an original.

Up until relatively recently this Batmobile replica was on display at the London Motor Museum, it’s now being offered for sale by Bonhams in a live online auction. At the time of writing there are still a few days left to bid, you can click here if you’d like to see the listing or register to bid.

Above Image: This is the original trailer for the 1989 film “Batman” from director Tim Burton, you’ll see the Batmobile featured a number of times.

Images courtesy of The Market by Bonhams

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For Sale: Nigel Mansell’s 1991 Birkin Seven Sprint

This is a 1991 Birkin Seven Sprint, it was ordered new by Formula 1 driver and future world champion Nigel Mansell. He kept the car in his private collection for decades and has only recently decided to sell it.

The Birkin Seven Sprint was developed and built in South Africa, it’s based on the design of the Lotus Seven and it was developed by engineer and former special forces solider John Watson – a relative of legendary racing driver Sir Henry “Tim” Birkin.

Fast Facts – The Birkin Seven Sprint

The Birkin Seven Sprint and the other members of its model family were developed by John Watson. Watson had previously owned a Lotus Seven but was forced to leave it behind when leaving Rhodesia, modern day Zimbabwe.
Watson had first tried to work with Caterham however they had no interest, so he developed his own car from scratch. Initially the project was for one car just for himself but as more and more people showed interest, he put the new car into limited production.
Birkin have now been building their Seven for decades, they offer the vehicle as both a turnkey car or as a kit car for those who want to assemble it themselves. Thousands have been sold around the world.
The Launch of the first Birkin at the 1983 South African Grand Prix was attended by Colin Chapman’s widow, Hazel, and the Lotus Formula 1 team drivers Nigel Mansell and Elio De Angelis.

John “Birkin” Watson

John Watson was born in Wales, the son of a veterinary surgeon. The family moved out to Rhodesia (modern day Zimbabwe) when Watson was still a boy, after leaving school he joined the military and served in the special forces.

As with all Seven-type cars the Birkin has seating for two, there are very few luxury refinements as the car is designed to be a lightweight, sporting driving experience.

While he was serving he bought a secondhand Lotus Seven that he enjoyed working on and driving, he didn’t know it at the time but the car would fundamentally shape the course of the rest of his life.

He would return to the UK as a young adult to study engineering at Technicon in Salisbury, after which he emigrated to South Africa.

Immigration laws being what they were at the time, Watson was only permitted to bring one car with him from Rhodesia to South Africa, for reasons of practicality he chose the family car rather than the Lotus Seven which was left behind.

The Arrival Of Birkin Cars

After an unsuccessful attempt to get Caterham to set up a dealership in South Africa Watson set about using his engineering training to develop his own Lotus Seven-type car from scratch.

Power is provided by the venerable Ford Kent “Crossflow” engine, in this case it’s fitted with twin Wever carburetors and tubular steel exhaust headers.

He initially just planned to build one for himself, but demand from friends was such that soon he was building two, then three, and so on until he decoded to launch a company – naming it Birkin after a distant relative and legendary Bentley Boy Sir Henry “Tim” Birkin.

The company has now been in business for almost 40 years, thousands of Birkins have been delivered to owners around the world as either turnkey cars or kits, and they’re considered to be among the highest quality Lotus Seven-type cars in the world.

Nigel Mansell’s 1991 Birkin Seven Sprint

The car you see here was ordered new by Nigel Mansell and kept by him in his private collection for well over 30 years.

Mansell first encountered cars made by Birkin at the South African Grand Prix in 1983. He was a driver for the Lotus Formula 1 team at the time, and he attended the launch of the first Birkin car along with co-driver Elio de Angelis and Hazel Chapman, the widow of the late Colin Chapman (the founder of Lotus).

The Birkin is famous for its excellent, precise handling and very low curb weight. It’s been described as one of the purest driving experiences in the world.

Although Mansell didn’t buy a Birkin on the spot the little car obviously made an impression on him, as he bought one years later in 1991 and had it shipped to Britain to join his private collection where it has remained ever since.

This car is the Seven Sprint model that was formerly offered by Birkin. It’s powered by a Ford Kent “Crossflow” inline-four cylinder engine with twin Weber side draught carburetors and tubular exhaust headers.

The body is finished in a combination of red and polished alloy panels and in true Lotus Seven fashion it offers cozy seating for two.

Mansell has now decided to sell this car along with a couple of his Formula 1 cars and some other memorabilia. They’re all due to roll across the auction block with RM Sotheby’s on the 14th of May and this car is being offered with no reserve.

If you’d like to read more about it or register to bid you can click here to visit the listing.