Britten Racer - on board TT lap

18 months after this video was shot, I went out to New Zealand to ride this Britten racer around the much tighter Ruapuna race circuit on the outskirts of Christchurch on NZ's South Island.

It blew my socks off.

With over 170bhp at the back wheel, the hand-built £100,000 racer was punting out at least 10-20bhp more than the factory 888 Ducatis of the time. Obviously it wasn't eligible to race in WSB because the tiny Kiwi factory had only made a handful but if it was allowed I think it would have embarrassed the whole grid.

Sean's obviously taking it easy on this TT out-lap but the high quality video really does capture the noise and the aggression of the quad-cam V-twin perfectly. The camera angle also highlights John Britten's clever wishbone front suspension that isolates bump forces from braking forces.

Enjoy. 

By mark forsyth