Yesterday Webb's in New Zealand auctioned off a rare piece of history; Burt Munro, builder of the 'World's Fastest Indian' and several other Very Fast motorcycles, was also known to build engines for a few friends. As far as I know, these were all Velocette MSS-based sprinters, as another machine came up for auction a few years ago, in very similar spec. The Munro bikes proper are simply unavailable, and living in New Zealand, but a few of his other projects pop up occasionally, and are certainly worth the attention. This sprinter is beautifully crafted by Duncan Meikle, lifelong friend of Munro's; he lived within walking distance and they developed their Velocette sprinters in tandem, sharing tuning secrets and parts, and competing against each other at various sand and road sprints. Together, they developed the most effective Velo sprinters in the world.
One great story from their days sprinting at Invarcargill beach from 1959:
"Meikle and Munro were practicing quarter-mile starts. Munro decided to give a couple of young fellows a good head start and an even better beating, screaming past the surprised young men and giving them a wave bye-bye to boot. Unfortunately, this sent the Velo into a nasty tank-slap and, within a fraction, Munro had bailed and the Velo was twisted metal, 30 feet in the air and rising. As the machine churned down the beach, so did Munro.
Meikle [informed] Munro's mother of the unfortunate accident. [He said], 'I have come to report on Burt, he had a bit of an accident yesterday.' 'Oh', she said, 'Serious?' 'Well no', said Meikle, 'a few pounds of meat were ground off and a broken arm.' The next query from Mrs. Munro was 'I suppose it was on that motorcycle.' 'Yes.' 'That foolish Herbert, when will he ever give up those motorcycles!?!'. Mrs Munro was 84 years old, and her son Bert was 60!"
By the way, the bike went for NZ$71,000... that's over double the estimate.(Information taken from the Webb's auction site.)