Anyone remember the epic film 'Silver Dream Racer' ? Wasn't the bike based on one of Barry Hart's creations and during filming at the British GP, I think it was Roger Marshall who was the rider and couldn't qualify so they wheeled out a 750 and just scraped in, just for filming purposes you understand.

Or something like that.

Correct Mick.

Only pics of Spartons.

That was when you could get on pit lane! My mate showed Bazza his Honda tattoo and told him he should ride one to which he laughed (NR500 debacle) little did he know the NSR was coming soon. Our wives were a pain swooning over David Essex and Oliver Tobias The 750 won some national races not long after that, it was competitive with the TZs at the time. I think it was a square four based on an RG though I couldn't be sure. Nice bike, crap film Essex was called Nick somebody or other.
The race was pretty good too!

David

There's quite a lot of info and clips if you google Silver Dream Racer loads of WWW material there!


David

Nick Freeman.
Here is Norman White on the "Silverdream racer" in 1979.
A couple on the forum worked on the film, we discussed it a few years a go?
I quite enjoyed the film, corny and story a bit thin yes, also in UK it had a different ending to in the USA.

Photo Copyrighted to Graham Etheridge, racebikepics.

Photo Copyrighted to Graham Etheridge, racebikepics.

Well done Nigel, been trying to read that sticker on fairing for two days now!!

Just googled to find the different endings : love it.... we have the Essex character crashing and burning after crossing the line, whereas in the the Yank, or happy version, the dude is just a winner. I think egg heads would attribute this to our national psyche

And who says that TV doesn't influence kids Russell? It was a bit like the Sheene /Roberts thing in the press. Any film with Beau Bridges is what you'd expect to see at a drive-in according to my wife, who has never heard of the film or David Essex! I don't have to suffer Eastenders or Coronation St either thankfully, just ridiculous commercials and silly fishing rods.


David

Russlel do you have a link? I googled silver dream racer ending never seen the US end ( the british version showed a rce bike project beeing crashed against the pit wall and going up in flames ~ must have shrunk the rear tire too .... ie from a 500 to a 350 ! )
alos a lot of the footage of the " world GP at sliverstone was in the 350 clubmans champion ship finale IIRC)

Ive not seen the film Julian, nor the endings. I read a summary after googling. You can find stuff on youtube, but not it seems the endings.

That's what I thought too, actually, although for fear of appearing daft I didn't say so.... but that was the reason why I posted this pic of the 750 GT in the shed, the cylinder block ( with those specific cooling "fins" it had on top of the cylinder head , although it was watercooled...) does look strangely similar....although I admit the rest of the engine doesn't .

So, PaulMB, what is this machine, please !

Hi,
I think it's Tony Rutter

But us blokes had Tina Raines to talk to

yes, she is/was a very nice person in real life too IIRC, Glad you said her & not Diane Keen her part was a stretch I would think!:rolleyes:

Just in from the "Roon the Toon" event in Ballymoney, was a great night with some great bikes and great riders, Giacomo Agostini and Phil Read were in attendance among others. Will try to get some pictures up.

Here's the difference between a factory cylinder, right, and the Barton cylinder, left. I have no idea where the Barton one originated, all the piccies I have found so far show the production (road bike) cylinders to look like the factory one. Unless someone has some other pictures of GT750's. Unless of course the factory one isn't and the Barton one is, if you see what I mean, or Bartons cast their own cylinders complete with little Suzuki "S's" at the bottom of the rear lip but with a different water jacket.

Or maybe the water jacket on all cylinders is like the Factory/production one on the outside and like the Barton one on the inside which means you can grind the outside so it looks like the Barton one and it's all wasted alloy, I don't believe this myself. And I don't have access to a factory/production cylinder at the moment to check the depth of the jacket on the inside. I guess they cast their own, because the exhaust port flanges are very different, although you could machine this shape in to make the exhausts fit.

Factory ex ports

Barton ex ports, there are other subtle variations in the casting as well such as the shape around the bottom of the cylinder

But just for me to make sure I understand what we're talking about, is that engine a 750 or 500 cc , Paul ?

And does it really have a GT380 heritage/origin in it ?

And is the "Sparton" ( square four ? ) a different animal altogether from the "Barton" ?

Thanks for clarifying

Phil Spondon (chassis) + Barton (engine) = Sparton

Thanks Mike ....now I'm totally lost !

Wasn't there a square-four 500cc "Barton" engine , said ( in France at least.... ) to be a straight copy of an RG ?

I think this is a Barton TR750, the 380 based bike was something else and the four was a copy of the RG and made in 750 form too (I think!) I have 5 GT750 road engines in the garage, two of them are from '72 and the cylinders are smooth like the cylinder on Pauls pic on the right.The later cylinders have a logo. The other cylinders are not road at all. If it's 71mm bore it's a 750. The 72 cylinders are better to tune due to the water jacket thickness apparently. I know they are a a pain to break free from the cases, I still have 3 sets attached! I may have found someone who raced that bike in WERA about 12 years ago Paul, any distinguishing stuff on the WERA sticker?



http://www.bikepics.com/pictures/1130806/

I asked about the eligibility of this over here for WERA Formula 2 stroke........is is legal Don? The sticking point is whether this type of frame and swingarm existed in 1985? Anyone? I know the brake calipers and beefy upside downers aren't.


Nice bike though eh?


David

I see there's a spacer between the cylinder and the case. I believe you have to use one of those on the later road cylinders to raise it enough for the porting work and then machine off part of the cylinder on the top to compensate though I don't know if they'd use it to lower the compression on Paul's race cylinder.


David

There were several Bartons and Spartons.

Barton Motors were from Caernarfon in North Wales.

The 500cc three cylinder was based on the Suzuki 380 3 cylinder road bike but was watercooled and used, probably only the crankcases and the odd other bit, housed in a Spondon frame. I raced against some of these in the 70s on my Crescent 500 3.

The Silver Dream (nightmare) racer featured in the 'filum' of the same name was an RG 500 clone but could, in my opinion, have been as successful if only we Brits had not preferred the epic failure mode.
This was a square four disc valve motor of 500cc capacity.
Nigel Rollason, the first man to win a senior MGP on a two stroke in 1972 (351 TR2B I think) won in the Island with a 750 version of the engine campaigned as the Barton Phoenix in a sidecar chassis.

The 750 three was based on the Kettle, Waterbuffalo three cylinder 750 motor. Unlike the works cylinders which did not feature the external fins (at one time they were banned from using these cylinders in F750 as they were not road based but specially cast) the tuned road cylinders did feature the external finning.
The works engines were very special and were not available to the likes of Barton although heir products were very competitive with non-works riders.

The ‘filum’ featuring the 500cc Silver Dream racer did as much for British motorcycle racing as the Cosworth 500cc twin (which at a practice day at Snetterton wasn’t as fast as my 250 watercooled TD2B Hitac Yamaha) and couldn’t keep the oil in the engine, and the very well remembered KRM! Now who remembers that 500cc three cylinder four stroke?

Ah!!

The famous flying Superstreak

[quote name='tonyed' and the very well remembered KRM! Now who remembers that 500cc three cylinder four stroke?


I remember seeing the drawings in the comics Tony

It came up a couple of months ago and I think we decided it was a four not a three? I can recall seeing photographs at the time and all the hype surrounding it...so depressing, as at the time I think I really wanted to believe it.

I know I have a french car (!) magazine called L'Automobile with a period article about it but it's in my archives in France about 22.000 kms from where I am now so that won't help much. What I do remember is that the pictures were in colour ( not so common at the time ) and that there was something very unusual ( at the time .... ), which was that the frame , or was it the engine, were of a very bright colour ? Yellow, or blue ? The memories are a bit blurred but I do remember something very unusual , and very "modern" at the time....

Googling KRM brings up litterally thousands of irrelevant pages, and when you add "motorcycle" to the search they insist that it should be spelt KTM but nevertheless I think I found somewhere to start :
http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/wiki/KRM

Anyone recognise this likely lad?

A really nice fellow who should have done better than he did. I didn´t know him very well, but on the one or two occasions our paths did cross, I can say, he was one of the good guys.
RIP

Irish rider?

I think he would have loved that. No, not Irish.

I am thinking German.

Gustav Reiner?

Good call Mats

Didn't Gustav Reiner have a reputation as a playboy racer, with a few escapades with Barry Sheene durig the '70s?

Well done guys. Gustav "Kamakazi Gustl" Reiner is correct. Great character of the 70/80´s paddock. The stories about his womanizing and hard drinking are legendary. He and Bazza were indeed great chums.
He was nicknamed "Kamakazi Gustl" in Germany as a result of the numerous crashes and injuries he suffered, but always came back from.

Good sense of humour too, as I have recalled a couple of months ago

We hung out a fair bit and it was sad when I last saw him in 1997 as he was not very well...he used to say to me in his thick German accent "Hitler is not dead Stu, he is living in a U Boat in the River Rhine waiting for the shit to die down""

He came to see us in the Suzuki garage at Silverstone one year, watched us for a while and then said, "You know, if we had won the war this would be the 6th round of the German National Championship". Classic.

Attached photos of my latest aquisition which I am in the process of restoring to race condition.
One TZ350G engined Frepin.

Just seen on Eurosport the 350/250 Classic race at Brands, won by Lee Gourlay as usual - all those lovely strokers...........pity it'll be back to diesels tomorrow....................

Paul M

and

agreed gang , wish now we had entered , but a tad expensive IMHO

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9nrANs5Tr4

Brilliant!!

It looks like a complicated frame layout Tony, very tight and not as easy to work on as a conventional TZ, engine out of the frame for many jobs perhaps?

Yep , best laugh i've had for yonks