The Vincent Black Lightning is perhaps the most revered motorcycle in the world. Just a handful exist, and this one still carries the grime under its mudguards from countless battles. 5,000 miles on the clock, and every one of them in anger.  Black Lightning. Even the name sounds very fast, particularly coming from an era of pedestrian British fare with model names like Plover, Huntsman and Flying Fox. And fast it was – capable of exceeding 140 mph without raising a sweat. 

Right from the time of the release of the post-war Series B twin in Rapide form, the Vincent HRD was the king of the horsepower race for production motorcycles, but almost immediately, owners wanted more and more horsepower as the big twin was pressed into racing service. Naturally the Rapide was sought after as the king of the road burners, for those who could afford one, but out here in the colonies it was even more keenly eyed as a competition mount, particularly for sidecar racing, where the upper capacity limit was usually unlimited. Geelong’s prolific racer and motorcycle dealer Frank Pratt secured the first Rapide to come to Australia, and immediately began to clean up in local competition. London dealer Jack Surtees (father of future world champion John) had been racing a Norton outfit with some success, and order a Rapide with some special tweaks, this engine being built at the factory alongside a second ‘hottie’ which was loaned to factory Experimental Tester George Brown. Brown gave the machine its competition debut at Cadwell Park, Lincolnshire, at Easter 1947.