Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

FIRST RIDE PAUL HALLAM: BUILDING A BEITER TWIN Some weeks after our conversation, Hallam signed former Australian Superbike Champion Kirk McCarthy - who rode for the works Suzuki team in the 1996 World Superbike series - to race the X1R in its debut season. So here is Hunwick Hallam, trading under its commercial Australian Motorcycle Company title, over three years down the road, having produced this avant-garde engine and radical-looking bike without anyone finding out. How come - and what's the business plan? Presumably, even getting this far must have entailed an investment of se.veral million dollars. "That's the case," Hunwick said. "But while we were prepared to fund the design, development and prototype program ourselves, we realized we'd have to attract an outside venture-capital partner to make it feasible to start production. We're aiming at a production target of 500 bikes a year from a purpose-built factory which will be either in New South Wales or Victoria - both state governments are talking a deal, based on the new employment that starting up a manufacturing industry entails, and we're close to making a decision. "There are also federal Australian government subsidies available - but even so, we're still looking at attracting about $20 million of venture capital to underwrite' the first-year startup. Our business plan calls for us to go into profit in year two, meaning the company will be self-funding apart from interest payments. But the problem of smallscale manufacturing is that you can't employ just-in-time techniques. That means we'll have to be prepared to build large inventories of components, so as to get the best volume pricing from suppliers. Hunwi~ "It's this kind of thing we need a financial partner to help underwrite and I'm happy to say we've got several candidates interested, all of whom have various deals to offer. But before any of them would talk turkey, they had to see the product - so that's why we put our heads down and got on with developing the Power Cruiser prototype, which ran for the first time as a complete bike just six weeks ago - you're the first person outside the company to ride it." An honor indeed - but since our interview, word has it that a deal has indeed been clinched with a financial partner, ensuring the project will go ahead exactly as planned. The Hunwick Hallam marque will be officially launched at the Aussie round of the World Superbike series at Phillip Island on March 22-23, when prototype versions of both the Boss and the X1R will appear in public for the first time. So now what? When's production going to start? Rod Hunwick has it all mapped out: "The game plan is to spend the first half of 1997 refining and testing the two prototypes - the X1R Superbike and Boss Power Cruiser - then in the second half of the year to homologate them for the street, source all our component suppliers for production, build and equip the factory and start tooling up.' We plan to start production of customer street bikes before the end of the year, and honestly aim to hit our 500unit production target for 1998. "We'll be marketing the bikes primarily in Australia of course, and New Zealand, but also in Japan, the UK and some European countries. America will be further down the line, I'm afraid: the problems of product liability and federal type approval are a big negative for a small company like ours, especially if as we hope - we can sell all our produc- The Power Cruiser's 8ccelerBtion Is 8weinspiring, 8nd while shifting 8ction from the flV4Hlpeed gearbox Is slick, It's truly 8 secondary 8ctlvlty, one of choice, not necessity. tion in other markets. But one day, you might be able to buy an Aussie Power Cruiser to cruise California's concrete canyons aboard." So, what's it really all about, Rod? Why do it? "Well, I'm here to make a profit, and to enjoy doing so - but another reason is a bit more idealistic. Currently here in Australia, there's a lot of engineering expertise, good component suppliers, and excellen t raw materials - we at HH make our own titanium rods and valves, for example.. But everyone here in Australia still seems to want to buy offshore, so we rely on imported goods all the time, which is crazy. "I want to be involved in creating a world-class product that's Australian made, but measures up to the best from anywhere else -. and proves that on the race track, as well as in the showroom. Paul's dad created the Repco V8 engine here in Australia, that beat the best they could build in Europe to win two Formula 1 World Championships. Thirty years down the road, we aim for his son to do the same, but on two wheels, not four. I don't think it's over-ambitious. bu t our aim is to be the McLaren of the bike world - go racing to win at the highest level, and build a street bike that offers an unrivaled level of technology to the customer. Only in our case, it'll be at a price most people in the market for a hypersports bike can afford." Funny - Bruce McLaren was a Kiwi, too. When your dad, Frank, was the project leader on the Australian-built Repco V8 F-l car engine designed by bike engine guru Phil Irving, which powered Jack Brabham and Denny Hulme to successive all-Antipodean Formula 1 World Championships in 1966-67, you'd think that a career in motorsport engineering would always have bee.n in the cards for 37-year old Paul Hallam, designer of the complete Hunwick Hallam technical package, including the avant-garde allAustralian V-twin engine. Well, that's the way it's turned out but the Geelong-based Hallam's technical expertise has beeu acquired through hands-on experience rather than via classroom teaching, because Paul left school early with no engineering .qualifications of any kind. That makes him a self-taught, pragmatic engineer who learned his craft the hands-on way. "1 had engines drummed into me from an early age," he says. "So I started a reconditioning business in Geelong, working on every kind of engine - car, motorcycle, marine, aviation, the lot. Eventually we started tuning engines for touring-car racing, then for every form of motors port including bikes I've also competed myself in car racing and on bikes in enduro and motocross, as well as in Formula 1 powerboat racing - now that's a serious activity. "But motorcycle engineering has always appealed most to me, not just because I've ridden bikes ever since 1 was a little kid, but because as far as I'm concerned, it's the pinnacle of internalcombustion engineering. Bike engines incorporate advanced design features and technical solutions on ordinary street models anyone can buy, that are far ahead of anything in the car world in design terms." Over the years, Paul Hallam has established a reputation as one of Australia's top race tuners, working among others for the local importer-backed Kawasaki, Suzuki and Yamaha superbike teams. But it's a long way from porting and gas-flowing cylinder heads, to building a better V-twin. After he'd risen from his hospital bed (see Hunwick interview) to team up with Rod Hunwick, how did Hallam go about it? "The important thing was that 1 started with a clean sheet of paper, with very few restrictions imposed on me," Hallam says. "Agreed parameters were a 9O-degree V-twin (because it had perfect primary balance), capacity about 135Occ, double overhead cams with belt drive, fuel injection, and a cruiser-style chassis package. "That was how it started out - but with my superbike racing background, I made sure I.designed the engine so it'd· work jUst as well in 1000cc form, and in fact the Power Cruiser has a scaled-up superbike engine, not the other way around." Both engines were developed in tandem, running ·on the dyno for the first time in January '96, with the prototype Boss Power Cruiser completed in September, the month before my ride on it at Calder. Apart from the XIR's pneumatic valve gear, and the different bore and stroke for the bigger Boss engine, both designs are essentially identical. Starting with a clean sheet 'allowed Hallam to design the engine and chassis as an integrated whole - crucial, when the engine is used as a solidly mounted, fully stressed chassis member as on the HH, with the alloy swingarm pivoting in the crankcases and the forks effectively bolted to the pair of cylinders.

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