LB went to the third International Historic Motorsports Show at Stoneleigh Park in Coventry to have a look at some of the rare and first Sportsbikes that were raced by the likes of Mr Barry Sheen and, the only Ferrari motorcycle ever built, which was a tribute to Enzo Ferrari. Also at the show, were plenty of race and rally cars from the past to the present day, to astound you with how technology has come on in leaps and bounds!
After a refreshing ride and a brief stop at the services, we arrived at Stoneleigh Park which is situated between Leamington Spa and Coventry on the A46 in Warwickshire. Once inside the venue, we spent quite a bit of time looking around for the motorbikes and eventually found half a small hall with some very impressive and stunning machines in it. Expecting to see at least one hall out of the four, dedicated to bikes, we were a little disappointed after travelling all that way, with there not being more for us to look at. The disappointment soon disappeared once we started to look at some of the historic bikes on show, and started chatting to the proud owners, who were happy to talk to us about the history and stories behind these wonderful machines.
To be able to touch and just get so close to the bikes of our race hero’s is one thing, but having them right in front of you, you can really imagine what is was like to race on of these beauties. Randy Mamola’s 1979 YB3 Bimota was something to behold, as were two of Barry Sheen’s 1976 World Champion winning RG500 Suzuki’s, the ones that took him to victory in 1976 and 1977. This is the first time that these particular race bikes have been on public display in this country, because they have been in Australia for the past 21 years. Still belonging to the Sheen family, this would have been the last chance of seeing Barry’s bikes in Europe, as they’re being returned to Australia after the show. It was interesting seeing an MV4 from 1974 and a tasty green and white, 1972 Kawasaki HR2 750, which has a three-cylinder, air-cooled, two-stroke engine. This bike was ridden by American Gary Nixon in his hay day at Daytona. Just looking at the suspension and the tyres on these bikes, makes you realise how unforgiving these machines must have been, being pushed to the max.
Some of the classic bikes were really eye opening, imagine doing a few laps around Brands Hatch, going 85 mph on a 1963 Honda CR110 production racer, with it’s 50c single-cylinder, four-valve, eight-speed engine, pushing out a whopping 9 bhp. Seriously big balls would have been needed to race something as flimsy looking as this. You have to take your helmet off to the racing hero’s from the past, if only they could see, feel, hear and experience the technology and power that the sports bikes of today have to offer.
Another motorbike that really stood out was a 900cc four-cylinder Ferrari. Built be Kay Engineering, this is the only one ever built with full written sanction from Ferrari, as a tribute to Enzo Ferrari. This one-off masterpiece of engineering took five years to build and has never been used to this day. With the unmistakable Ferrari horse on the cast magnesium cam-covers and the entire Ferrari red bodywork that has been made of hand beaten aluminium, this bike was something else. It was for sale at a non-negotiable price of £250,000. There were a few other bikes for sale at the show, including a brand new, one-off Benelli 900 Six which was being sold for £25,000.
There were plenty of other types of bikes and cars to look at, including historic racing, rallying, hill-climbs, drag-racing, trials, side-cars and classics. More than enough stands with engineering and speciality race products, accessories, models, books, art, memorabilia and even auto jumble. Over the weekend there were big name racing celebrities like Agostini, eight-time TT winner Phil Read, Steve Parrish, and seven-time TT winner Mick Grant mingling, giving autograph and posing for photo’s.
Over all the Historic Motorsports Show was very interesting, it was humbling being in the presence of the few, but very unique and special sports motorbikes that gave inspiration for the ones we ride and take for granted these days. It was worth going to just to see and learn about the half a hall’s worth of bikes, let’s hope that we’ll see many more historic motorcycles on show at next years show.
Related Galleries '06 International Historic Motorsports Show
