Bonhams auction showcases British-built super sports

Super-sports motorcycles produced in England headline Bonhams’ Stafford sale scheduled for October 16.

More than 230 motorcycles are on the auction docket, ranging from a German-built 1907 Vindec Special 5hp with Graham Brothers sidecar to bikes such as the ex-works NCR Ducati 905cc that Roger Nicholls raced in the Isle of Man TT in 1977.

“Our motorcycle dedicated sales are synonymous with the world’s finest machines of yesteryear,” Ben Walker, Bonhams’ head of collector motorcycles said in a news release. “This autumn’s sale has attracted some truly remarkable entries including an exceedingly rare Croft-Cameron Super Eight with elegant lines and sporting prowess – a potent machine in the right hands.”

Bonhams said the 1924 Croft-Camaron 996cc Super Eight “ranks among the super-sports big twins of the 1920s and ’30s,” when the Coventry-based company produced “striking and powerful machines for the very top of the market.”

“Look! Speedmen, Hard Riders, and all such Sportsmen,” proclaimed a Croft Cameron advertisement in the March 1923 issue of The Motor Cycle. “At last you have the Ideal of your dreams. The Croft Anzani Super Eight.”

Bonhams has set a pre-auction estimated value of £160,000 to £200,000 ($208,000 to $260,000) on the Croft Cameron.

Other super sport twins in the Stafford Sale include a 1925 Zenith 981cc Super 8 with a JAP KTCY 4-cam engine from a Brough Superior SS80/100, and a 1937 Brough Superior 1,096cc 11-50hp motorcycle combination originally owned by the Sheffield police department.

The docket includes 20 bikes old enough that the British consider them “veterans;” what is believed to be the oldest complete and original post-war Vincent — a 1946 Vincent 998cc Rapide Series-B; one of only 76 Series B Black Shadows, a 1948 Vincent HRD 998cc; and a variety of racing bikes, including the ex-Texaco Heron Team 1976 Suzuki RG500 XR14 formerly owned by Grand Prix racer Rob Bron.

The sale will take place at the The Classic Motorcycle Mechanics Show at the Staffordshire County Showground.