Turner-Egli

Arbuthnot

Forum User
Non-VOC Member
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.View attachment 20682
Hello Colin, I almost bought that bike from Trevor around 1981. Great to see a photo of it again. Trevor built the frame with his dad and I remember seeing it in their garden shed. He rode to Spain with my brother on a touring holiday in the mid 70s. Later when starting his racing he did alot of work on that bike tuning the exhaust to match all the mods he'd done. You'll have to ask him what they were..., but rumour has it the bike was good for a genuine 100mph at that stage.
 

Arbuthnot

Forum User
Non-VOC Member
Hi, I have great memories of Trevor Smith at one of the Cadwell VOC meetings in the late 70s. I was racing my Norvin and it was going well. I can remember looking at his bike and it's small Shadow type carbs and wondering how it would go. I soon got my answer when he just disappeared into distance. Unfortunately this appears to be one of the VOC race meeting where no results were published so I am unable to give lap times or even where I finished but Trevor won "going away".
Trevor blew his twin at Keevil. He worked out with the gearing and the recorded rpm he was doing 160mph. No other bike overtook him before at all went bang!
 

clevtrev

Well Known and Active Forum User
VOC Member
I bought a Trevor Smith frame in 1979, when he was showing his wares at the Dorset Rally. A whole kit.
 

Colin

Well Known and Active Forum User
VOC Member
Hello Colin, I almost bought that bike from Trevor around 1981. Great to see a photo of it again. Trevor built the frame with his dad and I remember seeing it in their garden shed. He rode to Spain with my brother on a touring holiday in the mid 70s. Later when starting his racing he did alot of work on that bike tuning the exhaust to match all the mods he'd done. You'll have to ask him what they were..., but rumour has it the bike was good for a genuine 100mph at that stage.
Hi Arbuthnot
When I bought the bike it it probably was capable of about 100mph, but it was almost unrideable around town or slowly. The story of it on it's first trip abroad was in a fairly recent MPH. When it came up for a rebuild I had it detuned somewhat and it went everywhere as a tourer. Great bike and one I will never part with.
Small coincidence here, I built another Comet into a trials bike for the Arbuthnot Trial. I won the odd award with it including the Avon Trophy. It was called "The Arbuthnot Iron" and was fully written up in MPH
 

royrobertson

Well Known and Active Forum User
VOC Member
Hi, when looking through my Archives again I have now found the race report in MPH and the race results of Trevor Smiths races on September 11th 1976. Sorry to all involved. Trevor's riding was described as "impeccable" and "immaculate" and he was wearing a Novice jacket!! He won every race he entered and his only challenger was Jim Poole on his Commando who was 5 secs behind in one of the races. My Norvin was 3rd but over 30secs behind. It was a shame he didn't do more racing as obviously he and the bike were so Quick.
Cheers
 
Top