From myth to metal
When AJS threw back the wraps on their star exhibit at the Earl’s Court Motor Cycle Show in November, 1935, the collective intake of breath almost sucked the carpets off the floor. Here, in solid metal, was perhaps the most mouth-watering, evocative and quite delicious powered two-wheeler ever offered to the public; a 50-degree vee with four cylinders, each with a single overhead camshaft driven by a central timing chain. It even carried a price tag – 89 guineas (when the average UK wage for a farm worker was about 100 Pounds per annum), suggesting that the order book was open for business. The design was the work of Bert Collier, of the original Matchless family who acquired AJS in 1931.
Alas, the V-4 not only failed to proceed to production, the sole example disappeared immediately forever, although the basic concept lived on as a racer, which was initially air-cooled and later water-cooled. The racing version appeared in the 1936 Isle of Man TT, with London butcher Harold Daniell and long-serving AJS rider George Rowley forming the team. Neither finished and the V-4 project went silent for two years, reappearing with a supercharger. In 1939, the blown V-4, now with water-cooling, was entered for the prestigious North West 200 in Ireland, where Bob Foster overcame a bad start to hit the front before a head gasket failed. At the TT, Foster and Walter Rusk made numerous pit stops for fuel and water, but at least finished – in thirteenth and eleventh respectively. In August 1939, Rusk recorded the first-ever 100 mph lap at the Ulster Grand Prix, and impressed by
