The Bimota DB1 was the first Ducati-engined bike from Bimota, it was originally developed as a joint project between the two companies overseen by Dr. Frederico Martini – a former Ducati engineer – but things soured before the project was completed, and the bike was very nearly never built. The Bimota DB1 The Bimota DB1 is…
This series of 26 images were taken in March 1993 by Matt Thompson and his family, on a special birthday trip to the Britten workshop near Christchurch in 1993. These photographs been completely unseen by anyone other than Matt and his family for the past 26 years. 1993 was a big year for the John…
The NASA Apollo Saturn V Rocket Building Kit is over 1 meter high (3.2 feet or 39 inches) when fully assembled, impressively it has a removable first and second stage that contain a model of the Lunar Module (Eagle) and a model of the Command Module. The Apollo missions took man to the Moon for the…
The legendary NCR workshop played a significant role in the early competition life of Ducati, perhaps most famously they built the special 900cc race bike that Mike Hailwood piloted to his seemingly impossible comeback win at the the 1978 Formula One TT at the Isle of Man. NCR was founded in 1967 as a small motorcycle…
This 40% scale Reynard Indycar model was designed for wind tunnel testing, as such it’s built to exacting specifications to exactly match the full scale race cars. Just two of these models were made in 1998, it took a team of over two dozen people three months to complete the project. Each of the models…
The AJS V4 was an advanced engineering effort undertaken by the British motorcycle company in the mid-1930s, the first prototype was intended as a road-going motorcycle and it was shown at the Olympia Show in 1935. Building The AJS V4 Racer The road-going version of the V4 didn’t get a green light for production, it’s…
This article was written by Walt Siegl of Walt Siegl Motorcycles – when possible we like to bring you the story of a motorcycle in the words of the person who built it to cut out the middleman, giving you unfettered access to their thought process and methods. It was a natural progression from building…
Editor’s Note: We’re now in touch with Stephen’s family and they have the negatives safely in storage. At the moment it’s just a matter of them finding time to have a look through the boxes. We also picked up two more leads on some other historically important Britten images. If you have any Britten-related images…
The 562 bhp V8 in the back of the Ferrari 458 won both the “Best Performance Engine” and the “Above 4-Litre” category at the 2011 International Engine of the Year awards. Though it’s no longer in production it’s revered as one of the all-time great V8s – with a screaming red line of 9,000 rpm and 398…
This 16-cylinder stirling engine is a fully-functioning model capable of speeds of almost 2,000 rpm. It’s powered by burning butane (lighter gas), there’s a small clear cylinder at the rear of the engine that feeds gas through copper pipes up to the 8 bases of the rear “hot” cylinders. Stirling Engines Stirling engines are remarkably simple,…
The Billet Sting is a custom BMW R nineT with a bespoke honeycomb alloy chassis machined by CNC in 10 individual pieces, before being carefully welded together on a jig to create one of the most eye-catching custom motorcycles we’ve seen in recent memory.
Flying boats were initially considered to be the only way to feasibly build large aircraft successfully due to the fact that they didn’t need heavy and complex landing gear, just a hull-shaped underside allowing them to touch down on water – the water itself would act as shock absorber and runway. The great benefit of…
