BRITTEN V-1000
RACER TEST
P112
"THE 003 V-1000 IS ALSO EASILY THE MOST
ACTIVE OF ALL THE REMAINING MACHINES
– NOT KEPT IN A THICK GLASS CASE; IT
GETS RIDDEN REGULARLY, AND NOT JUST
PLODDED AROUND. IT GETS RIDDEN THE
WAY JOHN INTENDED – HARD – LIKE A
REAL RACEBIKE SHOULD."
The Britten can
make you feel
invincible – the
way it steers,
holds a line, and
power out leaves
you breathless.
beating them, a possibility that is now all
but impossible in today's mega-budget,
mega-team day and age. Indeed, John
Britten's genius was probably more suited
to the '50s and '60s, where workshop-
savvy and perseverance often triumphed
over impossible odds.
The Britten V-1000 machine you see
before you is number 003 in a subject line
of 10 created before and after his death—
seven were completed prior to his demise
in 1995, three completed posthumously,
with the final unit rolling out of the Brit-
ten factory in February, 1999. This is not
the machine that sticks out in everyone's
mind—the Daytona 1100cc special that
so nearly completed a fairy tail return to
the famed American circuit in 1992 with
Andrew Stroud (he famously failed to finish
with a flat battery) after the team finished
a close second in 1991 with Aussie Paul
Lewis—but a 1994 build, 1000cc machine
that has competed all over the world, and
Carbon-fiber covers mask the toothed
cam belt. The blue paint was inspired
by the color of a plastic star fish John
brought back from a family holiday.
