Growing up in New Zealand, British cars and bikes were still the norm.......I remember riding my uncles 350 Compy Matchy around mums back yard when I had barely enough weight to kick start it.......Started my apprenticeship in Auckland as a mechanic.......at that stage most of my family had moved to Australia, whilst I stayed back home in NZ living with my grandmother.......Most weekends i would hang out with my friends and on most all saturday nights I would go down the road only a few km's away to the Western Springs Speedway.......It was an all in affair, so there was solo bikes, sidecars, migdets, TQ's and modifieds, the big sprint cars with the big wing on the roof........Being a motorcycle nut from a little kid and not having anyone else to answer to, it was like a paradise for me going there.......I use to love watching the solo guy's in the pits starting their Jawa's, Weslakes, and Godden's by simply spinning up the back wheel.......I always thought the sidecar blokes were complete nutters........always crashing, and going around the track the wrong way.....???......Anyway one night whilst up on the hill looking down at the sidecar boys about to start a race......they all lined up, the tape went up quickly and with a roar and a hiss they were off.......One of them clearly sounded way different to the others.......this was about 1984, so most all the bikes were Japanese powered machines.......But this one odd machine was quite different.......It could hold its own down most of the straights, with the contemporary jap bikes starting to pull ahead of it at the end of each straight, but through the corners, it simply walked away from them all.......It won the first race of the night, then came a very close second on the second race. I "Needed to know" what this bike was........in the pits i looked the bike over but could not find any sign of what make the engine was.......Being a 49 engine, the timing cover had nothing on it.......also covered in mud as well.......I looked at the smiling rider and his passenger, and asked them what in blazes was it........He said, "havent you heard of a HRD before".......I said, "Sorry mate......No".......Well I never got the sound of that engine out of my head.......after the family and I attended the 2007 International rally.......later that year I bought 2 bikes......Been pretty much playing with them ever since....... Like the sound of a Merlin passing overhead, things like that you don't forget.....All good fun really.