SPEEDWAY STAR
I wonder how many great projects start with a mad idea. Take this one for instance; who in their right mind would even think of putting a Jawa speedway engine into a road bike? At least, not without a very good reason. Fortunately for us, David Witt, builder of this splendid BSA special, had that reason: ‘I did it because I liked the look of the engine,.’ he said, entirely seriously.
Such is the confidence of youth. It was in the late 1960s when David first saw the engine in the family’s workshop. It was his grasstrack racer brother Alan’s birthday present but, even then, Dave had a vision of how his finished machine would look.
Those were the days of Concorde test flights, Pirate Radio and the Vietnam war. Now, Concorde is a museum piece, the pirates are drawing their pensions and Vietnam is a holiday destination, but David’s vision stands gleaming in the sunshine. You must agree, that engine really does look good.
It was certainly not an undertaking for the faint-hearted, even for a man who built his first Gold Star from parts at age nineteen. Clear vision or no, the project was extremely challenging with many blind alleys. A speedway engine is designed for a few laps of a track, flat out, for about a minute. It has a total loss
