Sathurshan

December 27, 2019

The Britten V1000: The Most Remarkable Hand-Crafted Motorbike In History

One of the biggest challenge faced by auto-manufacturers in the designing and developing processes involved in manufacturing motorbikes. Britten is one of the auto-manufacturer who developed an outstanding machine with minimal available resources. The designing and development of the Britten V1000 took place unconventionally in a shed. John Britten and a group of friends decided to go ahead with an unusual idea of building a motorbike in-house.

The Britten V1000 | Photo Credit: Britten New Zealand

Why is the Britten V1000 Remarkable?

The first-ever highly advanced hand-built motorbike built in the 90s is the Britten V1000. It changed the conventional method of product designing and development. The shed built Britten featured a water-cooled, 1000cc, V-Twin Four-stroke engine. In developing the engine, John Britten used his wife’s pottery kiln and water from the swimming pool to heat treat the engine block. The V-Twin engine developed in-house with minimal resources was able to produce 166bhp. It was indeed unique and way ahead of its time.

Creativity didn’t stop there as John wanted the motorbike to stand out from the rest. Britten V1000’s had no frame as the engine acted as a stressed member. At the designing stage of the V1000’s bodywork, a bare frame was fabricated out of welding rods which were placed together by a glue gun. Britten V1000’s bodywork was then moulded entirely out of Homemade carbon fibre. The bike featured titanium valves and con-rods, programmable ECU and double-wishbone front suspension which was uncommon at the time. However, only 10 units of Britten V1000 were ever built as the production ran only for awhile. Most of Britten’s made are currently in museums or owned by collectors.

John Britten with the Britten V1000 | Photo Credit: Britten New Zealand

Who is John Britten?

John Britten was a mechanical engineer by profession. He lived in an isolated island in New Zealand therefore, he would design and fabricate any parts he needed. John worked as a designer for heavy machinery and off-road equipment at Rowe engineering. Along the way, he became a fine glass artist before getting involved in the family property development business. Eventually, in 1992 John created Britten Motorcycle company which lead to the creation of the Britten V1000.

John with the Britten V1000 | Photo Credit: Britten New Zealand

Achievements

In 1990, during the first outing at the USA Battle of the Twins race, Britten came 4th and 5th, which was not enough for John Britten. He went back to the drawing board and made improvements to the bike. On the consecutive year 1991, Britten came 2nd at the Daytona USA Battle of the Twins. In 1992 the Britten led the USA Battle of the Twins race by outrunning the class-leading Ducati team. However, Britten failed to finish the race as one of the parts that Britten hadn’t manufactured failed.

On the same year, Britten won the Battle of the Twins in Assen and BEARS support race at Manfeild and BEARS sound of thunder. In 1993, Britten came 2nd overall during the New Zealand National superbike championship. In the consecutive years, Britten had won various races such as Australian Bathurst TT, 1994 – 1996 Bears sound of thunder, European Pro Twins in 1995, NZ National superbike championship 1996/1997 and March ’99 Sound of Thunder.

Besides dominating the track, Britten had also set various world records. Initially, the world flying mile record for under 1000cc  where V1000 clocked a whopping 302.701 kph. Followed by the world standing start quarter-mile record clocking at 216.63 kph. On top of this, the team also won the world starting mile record at 343.65 kph and standing start kilometre at 299.72 kph.

Britten Team | Photo Credit: Britten New Zealand

Unfortunately, John Britten passed away at the age of 45 because of incurable skin cancer. This led to Britten’s achievements coming to an end soon. Even though we never got to see John Britten’s full potential, John Britten’s legacy still lives up to this day and the Britten V1000 remains as one of the most desirable machines in the world.

Britten V1000 and John on the Track | Photo Credit: Britten New Zealand