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We were tipped off to this Harley racer last week, but didn’t get to it before the auction ended. This thing deserves a mention though. This nearly ninety year old bike is especially interesting because it’s an 8-Valve V-Twin that was built to race! There were reportedly less than 50 produced and this one even has a sidecar. It sold at Shannon’s Melbourne Spring Auction for over $600k – which was about $500k more than the pre-auction estimate! Thanks goes to Michael F. and Chris W. for the tip!
That thing is awesome. 600K is alot for something your not going to use.
My hat is off to whoever it was who had the guts to ride in the “sidecar”. He must have been pretty small because it looks like it’s suspended on spagetti tubing.
There can’t be too many of these kicking around, but $500K over the estimate—phew! There must have been two H-D fanatics in the room and they both must have wanted it bigtime. Wish I was the seller.
600,000 Australian dollars is around 420,000 US dollars. Still insane.
peanuts if you a billionaire!
Probably a business write off too.
Oh dang, I could have bought this instead of my house! ..if only I knew about it sooner. Obviously, it was the rich patina that drove the price.
Me thinks someone is trying to give HD a boost, 500K is cheap advertising, if it works.
That would make it a write-off as well.
The old cycles with ‘History’ go for the big bucks now. I sold mine back in the 70’s to pay off an IRS judgement for less than 3k, it had run the 3-Flags Race (Canada to Mexico) in the early 20’s. A 1921 Sport Model-W, with an opposed flat-twin engine of 558cc. W-Models weren’t that popular, only being built from 1919 to 1923, and were used mostly for endurance trials, it’s headlight was powered by carbide. I’d bought it when I was 15 from a guy who’d had it stored in his basement since the early 30’s. These days, looking back, it seems I could have saved myself a lot of energy, time, and restoration $$’s, by just leaving as it was.. who could have ever imagined.