I’ll be honest when I started this project I just wanted to transfer the burning desire I had in my mind into something tangible and material.
It’s the same story with the Hilux and all of my projects, I have this way of fueling an imaginary project in my mind with things that inspire me, this imaginary project becomes the center of my thoughts, I start to understand it so well that it’s far easier to actually do it than try and forget about it.
The silence comes from finding a starting point, all it takes is a few of the right parts for the right price.
With a starting point comes a material project that I can then work from, it’s a relief because I am in control now, I own the future of the machine, I can move from point to point and concentrate on each detail without the noise of the last as a distraction.
But this project was a little different to previous ones, I had a lot to learn and I had a lot of history to catch up on.
I was working on inspirations from a bygone era, I was hoping that if I could emulate the form then the function would follow.
For me to hear this bike run was payment enough, I knew I would never get to race it and I am happy in that fact.
But after I came back from The Boogaloo Invitational show I wanted to atleast give myself a chance to see what its capable of.
I loaded up the bike and headed out to some backroads near my house, strapped on an old helmet that I relined, fueled it up with a concoction of methanol and nitromethane and just let it go. It reminded a lot of testing the KTM land speed racer, the smell, the sound and the feel of being aboard a 66 year old machine was something else. I tried launching it in first gear but the clutch would nip up pretty damn quickly, I figured second would be faster and slowly gained confidence in its ability, it was fast!
I could finally understand and get a real feel for what those founders of the sport experienced, I’m not doing 150mph in a T shirt and an open face helmet, ill never understand the logic behind that but if you ever get the chance throw a leg over this machine then you will realize Motorsport heroes from the 50’s and 60’s were truly crazed individuals and that’s what I love most about this bike.
Three tanks of fuel later I rolled the bike up into the van and headed for home, I am so excited that the vision is complete, that the results have been worth the effort and that I can now concentrate on the other unfinished project in the garage…. stay tuned!