Strictly speaking the first "Sprint" frame was made by Dennis Smith, and had a Comet engine, which came from Pete Gerrish's racing sidecar outfit. . The completed machine was registered for the road on 1st August 1972, and first ridden on 5th August 1972. Trevor Smith raced the bike during the 70s, and a picture of him can be found racing it in 1975 at Cadwell on page 24 of "The first Vincent HRD Scene". Although a novice racer at that time both Trevor and the bike were very quick. There is an apocryphal story of him having a race long "ding dong" with a twin, just loosing out at the finish. The twin rider congratulated him on his (novice) performance, and was apparently very surprised when told "yes not bad for a single, when you were on a twin" There is also a picture of the bike in the 1974 Vincent calendar. It is possible, but completely unconfirmed, that the bike was registered by Trevor Smith, and subsequently passed to the ownership of Dennis Smith. It certainly passed to Tony Holland a Vincent owner and a motorcycle dealer, probably around the end of the 1970s or the beginning of the 1980. apparently with a lot of other Vincent bits. I was told by Tony that the sale of bike and bits was to help finance the Sprint Manufacturing Business. Tony did not register it as such because the log book shows the previous registered keeper as Dennis Smith and I acquired the bike from Tony on 15.05.1982.. I think it is clear that my Egli Comet, is the first "Sprint" frame as it is numbered ****/**/100T I have Trevors hand written notes on the building and specification of the bike.The bike has undergone many changes since I acquired it, butb is still fundamentally the same bike built by the Smiths getting on for 50years ago.
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