Britten V1000

With Phil Aynsley

There have been many, many words written (and at least one film produced), about John Britten and his wonderful creations. I’ll let the images do the talking here and just note that this is one of the early (1992) bikes and originally had the 003 engine number. Those crankcases were later fitted to another bike and cases stamped 002 were then fitted to this bike (before the present owner obtained it in 1997).

The achievements of this bike include:

1993 – Four first places in NZ, first in the Bathurst BEARS race and second in the Formula 1 race.

1994 – 119 mph lap at the IOM, first in the BOTT at Daytona (with the highest top speed recorded there of 189 mph/304 km/h).

1995 – First in the inaugural BEARS World Championship with five wins.

The bike makes 166 hp at 11,800 rpm (12,500 rpm safe maximum) and weighs in at 138 kg. Top speed is 304 km/h.

It was truly a privilege to be allowed to spend a day photographing it! And moving it around by myself is one of the most terrifying things I have ever done!!