Hesketh V1000 - Nobility waived

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Hesketh V1000 - Nobility waived

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Created on August 23, 2021

Text:

Paul Krüger

Photos:

RM Sotheby's

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Gerald Swan - Courtesy RM Auctions

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Bernard Cahier/Getty Images

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David Montgomery/Getty Image

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Hesketh V1000 from 1980 - one of only 139 machines in the first series

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The pinstriping on the paint set is original. The decorative lines were also available in gold.

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The solid engine is a load-bearing part. The tight-fitting pipe underneath is not a downstand beam but the exhaust.

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This view was only available to just under 200 motorcyclists in the 1980s.

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The high rear is a matter of taste. Otherwise, the V1000 has a powerful but elegant appearance.

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The grim-looking cockerel was indeed Lord Hesketh's heraldic animal. Would it have stood a chance against Triumph's "thunderbird"?

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Baron Hesketh's coat of arms adorns the rump of the V1000.

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Nice detail: the signature on the cover of the primary drive

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The transversely mounted engine makes the mighty V1000 surprisingly slim.

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The two-in-two exhaust had to be muffled more for the German market.

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Classic, easy-to-read Nippon-Denso instruments. The quartz clock is from VDO.

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The switches on the handlebars are from the Yamaha range.

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Two-seater bench with a slight hump. Nevertheless, the seat height is quite high.

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When the seat bench is pushed back, it is raised by a gas spring. There is a storage compartment underneath.

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A touch of disguise. The Hesketh Vampire was then fully disguised in 1983.

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Unusually shaped rear light with central knob.

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The oil cooler is hidden between the fork legs

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The wheels were assembled from two pressed aluminum parts. Two brake disks at the front were standard. One at the rear will have to suffice.

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Timing cover of the rear cylinder. The Hesketh V1000 was the first English motorcycle with four camshafts.

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Quality from Italy: Brembo supplied the braking system, Marzocchi the telescopic fork.

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This picture gives an idea of the heat problems of the rear cylinder.

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Replacement engine? The number on the front left mount is actually a feature of the 1984 series.

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Rear shock absorber and shock absorber from Marzocchi

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While the gearshift linkage was surprisingly delicate, the deflection of the rear brake was extremely massive.

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James Hunt in the Hesketh 308 at the 1974 Argentine Grand Prix in Buenos Aires

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Test of the Hesketh V 1000 in the motorcycle issue of May 23, 1984

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Prince Philip meets Lord Hesketh, James Hunt and "Bubbles" Horsley at the British Grand Prix on July 19, 1975

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Lord Hesketh with his motorcycle at the Easton Neston country estate.

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Summary

Thomas Alexander Fermor-Hesketh did not spend much time on child's play. After selling his Formula 1 team to Walter Wolf, he wanted to single-handedly save the British motorcycle industry. Of course, despite several attempts, things went horribly wrong. Not even 200 Hesketh V1000s were built between 1980 and 1984. This article tells the story of the failed English luxury bike and shows an early version in the picture.

This article contains the following chapters

British misery
Ambitious goals
Compromises in the drive
Presentation of the first prototype
Start of production and first insolvency
The same but different
Surprisingly positive test report
The dead live longer

Estimated reading time: 11min

Preview (beginning of the article)

At the end of the 1970s, it wasn't just the British car industry that went down the drain between strikes and re-labeled Hondas. By the time Maggie Thatcher took office, there was not much left of the glory of the Empire's once world-famous motorcycle industry. AJS and Matchless had already been history for ten years, Royal Enfield came from India from 1970, BSA ceased production in 1972 and the Norton-Villiers-Triumph group founded by the government in the same year broke up again in 1978. Two years later, a young aristocrat from Northamptonshire wanted to do what the national leadership under James Callaghan had failed to do with the forced merger of traditional companies: namely to save the British motorcycle industry and not leave it without a fight to the Japanese, who were now pushing harder than ever into Western markets. The machines from Kawasaki, Honda, Yamaha and the like were also so successful on the island because they were based on British models, but dispensed with typical British characteristics such as occasional piston sticking, water-shy electrics and unintentional loss lubrication.

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