Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/976068
EHRET VINCENT SERIES C BLACK LIGHTNING P106 Feature desirable slice of motorcycle history. The first two "Lightningized" engines for Surtees and Brown's Gunga Din were numbered F10AB/1A/70 and F10AB/1A/71, respectively, and the special Shadow sold to U.S. dealer John Edgar in July 1948 was F10AB/1B/900. Subsequent Light- nings all carried the "IC" designation, and the third of these to leave the factory, F10AB/IC/1803, was sent to Sydney, Australia, in March 1949, and purchased by sidecar racer Les Warton. From 1949-1952, six complete Black Lightnings plus one engine went to Vincent agents in Australia, the company's second-largest ex- port market after the U.S., with two more privately imported, one via Singapore. One was raced in 1949 by Sydney rider Tony McAlpine, who became virtually unbeatable in Unlimited class events aboard the Black Lightning, winning 12 major races from 13 starts. For the 1951 European sea- son, McAlpine decided to try his hand overseas, securing an AJS 7R for the 350cc class and finishing 13th in the Isle of George Brown, Vincent's experimental tes- ter, whose ensuing bike became famously known as Gunga Din and was the test bed for the Black Shadow and Black Lightning. First shown at London's 1948 Earls Court show, the production Black Lightning caused a sensation despite its then-enormous $550 price tag plus a hefty $150 purchase tax (the average British salary in 1948 was about $415). It's generally accepted that only 33 complete customer versions—all Series C ex- cept for one Series D model—plus Rollie Free's first 1948 Series B prototype were ever built (together with anything up to 13 engines for installation in race cars), before production ended in 1952. Today, the Black Lightning is perhaps the most coveted production motorcycle ever built. Only 19 of the bikes built are believed to still exist, so the astronomical values achieved at auction (like just happened in Las Vegas) on the rare occasions when one comes on the market, makes the unrestored ex-Jack Ehret three-owner bike with a glorious unchallengeable racing history, a rare and immensely Ehret and the Vincent on their way to equaling the great Geoff Duke's lap record at Mount Druitt in 1955. The rider's cockpit. Rudimentary doesn't really cover it. Today, the Black Lightning is phaps the most ceted producti motcycle ev built.