Considering all the hoo-ha that has surrounded the Shadowfax restoration, you’d think it would be unlikely that any more archive material could emerge, but emerge it continues to do. The latest are some little gems from a good mate of the project who we have been trying for some time to contact and who surfaced through reading this blog and contacting me through the “Contact Phil” tab on the page. Bill worked with Kent back in the day and was responsible for a few aspects of the project. Remembering that it was a community effort, Kent and the boys drew on people from all walks of life and occupations in order to get things done.
Bill Dobie worked at the Royal Australian Mint as a draughtsman and it was he who designed the rear brake torque arm. I have the actual transparent layup as well as the scan of it which I reproduce below.
Like many of the “foreign orders” that helped to make this project happen, you can still see the imprint of where it was done in the bottom right hand corner of the picture!
Bill has also secured a photograph album that has some pictures of the March road closure where Kent rode the Shadowfax and won the Unlimited C Grade by nearly a lap.
The picture above is just as Kent was crossing the finishing line to win the race. The pits were in the middle of the track (behind the bus) and most of the people standing on the edge of the track would have come out from the pits to watch the race. Many of them would be fellow CRRC members (the yellow T shirts were our club shirts) and I am sure that the person in the white shirt and the brown slacks is George Ruston and it looks like Benny Evans in the white T shirt clapping as Kent crosses the line.
There is also this from Bill’s album.
Not even I have one of these.
As well as this wonderful stuff from Bill, I have also received 3 BETA tapes from Kent, one of which is the ABC tape of the Coca Cola 800 in 1981 which I am going to get digitised. And, last night I received these three great photos.
These two photos are best described in Kent’s own words. “Also attached are two shots from the proto in it’s best phase (in my mind) when it was the feral beast painted in ‘road warfare camouflage’. The shots are taken on the way to Bathurst for the making of a student film called ‘Bathurst – The Other Side’ with some uni pals.” I love the early-model GoPro camera!
Finally, he included this.
Again let me use Kent’s own words to describe this creation. “Attached is one of the concepts from 1984, it’s for a GPZ900R, they had just been released. I did actually manage to get hold of a wrecked one but the project never proceeded. I don’t think it would look out of date even these days. Note the integral indicator strips (not possible back in the day, but doable now), it incorporated engine protection by carbon/kevlar side sections, a headlight much like today’s bikes, a no-break refuelling system, and animal pattern seat padding.”
Considering that this design is 29 years old it shows just what a visionary that Kent was back then. Any thought that he pre-dated the styling of the Hyabusa is purely conjecture.
Now that the menu system is actually working, I hope that you are enjoying reading the best of the stuff that I have published over the last 4 and a half years. Feddback, as always, is greatly appreciated.
Also appreciated is this blog article from one of my Facebook friends, Elwyn Jordan.
sanoptic says
Hey Phil,
Yep been reading a lot of new stuff that i hadn’t read before….very good too!
As i have said before i attended a race meeting at Macarthur Park but can’t remember the year but i do remember Dennis Neal racing..gezz that guy could race hard! mostly on the back wheel of the CB1100 [ i think].
Foreign orders were quite common in an Engineering company i used to work for too,the foreman has us make all sorts of parts for his race cars, we even made an aviary & sneaked it out after hours…. the good old days….LOL.
Seeya
Phil Hall says
If it was the Dennis Neill meeting it was March 1981, the first weekend, actually. And, sadly, it was Dennis’s last successful meeting as he was horribly injured at Bathurst just a week or so afterwards. It was a CB1100R, you’re right about that, too. Glad you’re enjoying all the new material, Joe. Take care.