This trip has allowed me first hand interaction with some really unique one of a kind motorcycles.

I was wandering "The Loop"a part of Donnington Park Raceway that was set aside for display only activities when on Day 2 I happened upon the subject of this blog.

A strange lanky stark single cyclinder heavily modified motorcycle sat with very few onlookers.

Had they looked beyond the physical appearance and read the displayed materials they would have surely stayed and witnessed " ïn the flesh"one of Peter Williams famous racebikes.

The 500cc Arter-Matchless single cyclinder bike is the very machine that at the Isle of Man in 1970's Senior TT achieved two laps at the then unheard of 100mph average and returned an over all average for the whole race of 97.76 to be placed second to Giacomo Agostini who was riding his usual MV Agusta 500/3 a bike I also have seen live at IOM 100th Anniversary of The Mountain Course in 2011.

The bikes name Wheelbarrow comes from the comments of fellow competitors who found the revolutionary, for the time, Mag wheels to be a resemblence to the spoked wheels found on wheelbarrows.

Peter Williams was always ahead of his time and remains so to this day in the use of different types of construction to build either a full motorcycle (such as The Mono Norton) or to assist as is the case with the Arter-Matchless the addition of disc brakes.

The wheels were individually casted according to the drawing that Willimas (a qualified draftsman) gave to Essex based foundry Stone-Wallwork. Interestly the tubeless tyres are secured to the rim with 8 self tapping screws and to this day,almost 40yrs later, they still use that same method with no failures.

This bike featured originally the more rigid six tubed steering head unlike early Sprayson frames such as used by John Surtess which had five steering head tubes.

The Australian connection came in 1969 when the bike was loan to Australian Jack Findlay for the Belgium GP as normal rider Peter Williams was sidelined after a accident in the races at Thruxton.

Well unfortunately Jack binned it so badly it was officially written off.

We all know racing bikes are evolutionary and even when written off often rise from the ashes and resume a career as a parade, museum or full blown racer again. How many of us flock to The National Motorcycle Museum in Birmingham UK to see "Slippery Sam"a Triumph 750/3 without fully realising Sam was burnt to a multon mass of alloy in the museum fire. However when we have a talented engineer such as Peter Williams there is little hope of a new machine not emerging. So the Arter-Matchless was reconstructed using the original mag wheels mated to a new Grand Prix Metalcraft frame made from Reynolds 531 tubing. The original frame Peter liked so much that it was restored to its original specifications. This bike I am unsure which frame it now carries.

The Arter-Matchless was started for me and that characteristic throb of a 500cc four stroke single did bring a crowd of enthralled fans.

My intersted satisfied I talked for a while with the bikes custodians before they presented me with the bikes displays materials to reunite that Australian -UK link.