I never knew that people raced scooters at the Isle of Man. Until last week when I discovered this footage and became an immediately happier person. I like scooters. I know that this makes me less of a man in the eyes of hard-core motorcycle dudes but I don’t care. There’s a lot to be said for a 50cc smoke-spewing two-stroke, with tires the size of doughnuts and a headlight that gets brighter or dimmer based on how much throttle you pull.
The video was shot on an 8mm Super-8 camera and is 41 years old so it’s a little shaky in parts and a little dark in others, stick with it though, it’s an fantastic glimpse back to a simpler, cooler time.
Ben Branch has had his work featured on CNN, Popular Mechanics, the official Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with millions of readers around the world and hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
The Triumph Bonneville TT Special was designed specifically for American desert racing, as well as TT Steeplechase, and Hare and Hound competition – interestingly the final specification of the model was developed not in England, but on the West Coast of the USA by Johnson Motors, commonly known as “JoMo”. The Triumph Bonneville TT Special…
This off-road racing motorcycle is the only one like it in the world – it was built in Sweden by a motocross racer as a parts-bin special that was considerably quicker than most of its competition. The Gold Star The bike started life as a BSA Gold Star, widely regarded as having one of the…
The Yellow Peril The Norton Commando Production Racer was often colloquially referred to as the “Yellow Peril”. The bike would be offered as a road-legal factory racer to privateers and to well-heeled boy racers, so that the Norton factory could homologate the model for its own racing efforts. The first major victory for the Production…
For years I have drooled over the styling of Harleys and Indians from the 1940’s. I also inspired by the images of TROG in the USA. Finding and affording an original Harley or Indian of this era was beyond my means so this created an opportunity to build a replica with a twist.
This Ferrari F50 V12 engine was built to F50 GT specifications along with three chassis and another three or four race-specification engines. The F50 GT (also known as the Ferrari F50 GT1) was built by Ferrari in collaboration with Michelotto and Dallara to compete in the BPR Global GT Series against the likes of the…
The Triumph TR6 Trophy is perhaps better known by its legendary nickname – “The Desert Sled”. It’s not known who coined the term, but it stuck like glue, and it’s followed the intrepid Triumph off-road racer for decades. Even if you don’t immediately recognize the model, you’ve seen it before if you’ve seen the movie…
