Jefferies' TT V&M R1 for sale

We got a tip-off about a former David Jefferies TT R1 for sale on eBay. The owner says it's from the 1998 TT but I'm pretty sure it was the one he raced in 1999.

Here's a little bit more background about the V&M TT effort in 1999:

In 1990 Jack Valentine gave up racing to concentrate on running V&M Racing, and after being sacked by Honda at the end of the 1998 season, the team set about to do some giant killing. With just a little help from Yamaha and a very limited budget set about to change the face of racing forever.

The team took the new Yamaha R1 road-bike and for only around £14,000 retaining many standard parts including front forks, modified the road bike into a highly competitive package with 172 bhp at the rear wheel. At that time, Honda’s works RC45 were rumoured to cost £500,000 each

The bike was only finished in time for the Northwest 200. Ridden for the first time at practice for the event Jack Valentine was relieved to hear David Jefferies tell his father on the telephone that the machine was so stable at speeds approaching 180 mph, “you could eat your dinner off the tank”.

On this chassis, David Jeffries won both North West200 superbike races and set a new lap record of 122.26 mph. He then went on to win both premier races at that years Isle of Man TT, the TT Formula One race, and also the Senior TT.

At the Dundrod Circuit, in the 1999 Ulster Grand Prix, in practice David Jeffries put the machine on pole position wearing an orange newcomers bib. He then won the first Superbike race after much leg pulling by the team over the orange bib. In the second Superbike race Joey Dunlop rode the wheels off the  to narrowly beat David Jeffries, In what many people regard as one of Joey’s greatest ever road-racing victories. This was the only time this chassis was ever beaten. David Jeffries then won the final major roadrace of the season, the 1999 Macau Grand Prix.

This machine is believed to be the only chassis to have ever won every major roadrace in a season and was the very first machine to start the current trend of racing modified road bikes as against specialised racing machines.

After being comprehensively beaten by this machine Honda withdrew the RC45 from racing and returned in 2000 to race a modified version of their road-bike the SP1.

Here's what the current owner has to say:

DAVID JEFFERIES 1998 TT RACE BIKE.

THIS WAS DJ'S 98 R1 THAT HE USED TO RACE ON THE ROADS & AT THE ISLE OF MAN TT. 

THE BIKE HAS BEEN STORED FOR THE PAST FEW YEARS & HOUSE SALE FORCES SALE. BIKE HAS CONFOREMED AUTHENTICITY FROM DJ'S DAD.

BIKE ALSO COMES WITH V&M CLOTHING & HUGE POSTERS OF DJ  RACING. BIKE IS LOCATED IN IRELAND.

PLEASE CALL 0044 (0) 7775037711 FOR MORE IFO. PAY PAL DEPOSIT, CASH ON COLLECTION.

By Ben Cope