WITH ITS massively finned overhead-cam engine, and the rakish appearance lent by its spindly-looking yet purposeful girder fork, the 350cc Velocette KTT Mk VIII is unquestionably one of the most beautiful racing motorcycles ever built. Racebikes are supposed to be functional pieces of machinery, built for a purpose, but the KTT Mk VIII combines form and function in a way that, on a purely subjective basis, I don’t think any other single-cylinder motorcycle ever quite matched. There’s something indefinably attractive about the square finning of its single-OHC engine with just enough rounding-off of the edges, its ‘dog kennel’ rocker covers, the graceful sweep of the open-megaphone exhaust, and of course that handsome gold-lined black petrol tank with the discreet but classy Velocette logo that was Always in the Picture, according to the company slogan. Velocette’s failure to make a road bike with this last-of-the-line KTT’s looks but with a pushrod OHV motor, is one of the great lost opportunities of Vintage era marketing.
But as I’m fortunate to have discovered on a handful of occasions, the KTT Mk VIII goes as well as it looks, and my most recent turn in the hot seat of
