AUTO RACE - THE BIKES

Here is a cool Triumph powered Japanese Auto Race bike from the Dan Rouit Flat Track Museum:

This rare Triumph powered racer was found in the early 1990s under a wood pile, behind an antique store in Tokyo. Wayne Bialls, an American car collector from Phoenix, returned to the USA with his prize and proceeded with the restoration. When Bialls decided to sell the machine, he chose the VFT "For Sale" page and a quick call to Dan resulted in it being added to the growing museum collection. Dan’s good friend Aver Hensley, from Clovis, provided a proper set of handlebars, additional chroming and installation of the knee hook and number plates. The motorcycle was most likely raced until the early 1980s.

The picture above shows another Autoracer fitted with a twin cylinder Triumph 650cc engine, whilst the picture below is a Japanese Meguro engine, showing it's Triumph ancestry very clearly.

This Autoracer above looks like a Japanese Kyokuto KT2. * Thanks to Bennie Ludolphy we now know that this bike is not a Kyokuto but a twin cylinder, DOHC 4-valve Toyo; see this update *.

Kyokuto, (roughly translated as "sunrise" or "rising-sun"), were one of the oldest motorcycle engine firms in Japan. The Kyokuto Motor Industry Co Ltd produced its first engine in the mid 1930s, and ironically, the family name behind the company was Honda, in no way linked to the Honda Company of today. By the early 1960s, Kyokuto were producing around thirty 350cc and 500cc single cylinder engines every month

Todays Autoracers are powered by Suzuki SEAR (Suzuki Engine Auto Race) units, mostly AR600 twins but 500cc units are also produced for the novice riders.

Many other engines have been used in Auto Race over the years including BSA, EiCoH and HKS Hasegawa. At least two Kyokuto engines have found their way to the UK and are in private collections. I also know of at least one complete HKS powered Auto Racer in a UK collection too.