Britten vs Guzzi

[tail_end_charlie]

Remember the WSB round at manfield where John challenged the visitors to a match race ? Just as well it naver happened as there was around 2 sec per lap difference in times....and that was with the hippy Jason McEwan riding who at that time I'd have ranked with Holden. Just an amusing interlude for the serious racers. Would have seriously embarrassed John though if they'd taken the challenge.

Remember? Naaa, considering that I was probably <10 years old, living overseas, and not watching racing. Hell, I didn't even know that there were WSBK rounds held in NZ! As a side note, when did that happen?

Interesting to know the 2 second difference in lap times around the same track. So the Britten wouldn't have been at the pointy end of the field, but it still would have been maybe midpack in WSBK (there is a 2 second time difference in WSBK between the front and middle/back now, so I imagine it would be the same or more in the early '90's)????

[koba]

Remember? Naaa, considering that I was probably <10 years old, living overseas, and not watching racing. Hell, I didn't even know that there were WSBK rounds held in NZ! As a side note, when did that happen?

Interesting to know the 2 second difference in lap times around the same track. So the Britten wouldn't have been at the pointy end of the field, but it still would have been maybe midpack in WSBK (there is a 2 second time difference in WSBK between the front and middle/back now, so I imagine it would be the same or more in the early '90's)????

1988, 89, 90, 92.

http://www.wsb-archives.co.uk/schedules.html

All the info you need to work it out is on that site.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2TyAYsUkXo May also be of interest.

[tail_end_charlie]

1988, 89, 90, 92.

http://www.wsb-archives.co.uk/schedules.html

All the info you need to work it out is on that site.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2TyAYsUkXo May also be of interest.

Very interesting, cheers for that.

[Grumph]

What would Brittens budget have been compared to the factory teams?

At that point in that season he probably had more money than the factory teams...They were at the end of the WSB series and working on the dregs of their season's budget. He had enough to put up a substantial cash prize - memory says several thousand $NZ. I was surprised at the time that one of the privateer teams didn't take him up on the offer as they were desperately short of cash....but also short of spares too with motors on their last legs before rebuilds.
At that point in time he was expanding the operation and had at least three people working for him full time...

So in real terms, less budget thasn the factories, more than the privateers, WAY more than anyone else in NZ....

[ducatilover]

I think it would have been quite interesting if they'd kept developing the bike. It did pretty well for what it was and perhaps could have become better? For a bike built with with less experience than a team of Kawasaki or Ducati engineers, it was impressive. I sure as hell wouldn't manage to build something that good

[Grumph]

I think it would have been quite interesting if they'd kept developing the bike. It did pretty well for what it was and perhaps could have become better? For a bike built with with less experience than a team of Kawasaki or Ducati engineers, it was impressive. I sure as hell wouldn't manage to build something that good

Again - read the Tim Hanna book. By the end John had lost focus and wouldn't listen to the very good guys he had working for him. They had the ideas, he had a heap of family pressure to drop it...then he got sick.
Given how things were left there was never going to be any progress post John as there was no budget forthcoming.
Given how a lot of the factories work with recent graduates coming in to the design teams to give "fresh ideas" I'd sooner have a bike built and developed by guys like those on the team...many of whom I know and still see.

[dangerous]

At that point in time he was expanding the operation and had at least three people working for him full time...

yeah one was a mates brother quentin rowe, magic on a cnc... they did have a super single on the bench up and running IIRC, then john fell off his perch and I believe her in doors scraped everything?

[Grumph]

yeah one was a mates brother quentin rowe, magic on a cnc... they did have a super single on the bench up and running IIRC, then john fell off his perch and I believe her in doors scraped everything?

Don't know if the single actually ran - the head and weird cam arrangement got a lot of bench test time.
Kelford's made a bit out of rebuilding the cams for it - frequently.

Yeah, Kirsty plus the accountant from hell rang the death knell over everything.

[GD66]

really shows the Britten front end into "Druids" against the Guzzi (soggy ol sock) and i like guzzi,s

No doubt significantly better than the Guzzi's forks, but Stroud had little time for the front end and when we interviewed him at Pukekohe in 1999, he indicated it was less than perfect and said the bike could have been anything with a conventional set of forks in it.