"The fucker's not much for turning, but it's pure hell on the straightaway. It'll outrun the F-111 until takeoff." - Hunter S. Thompson
The first production Vincent Black Shadow is completed.
The Black Shadow Series B was based on an early Rapide that had been re-tuned by the legendary factory test rider/racer George Brown, his brother Cliff, and designer Phil Irvin. The Rapide was ridden, raced and sprinted for nearly a year. One journalist testing it for Motor Cycling magazine was so impressed with it's performance that he borrowed a quote from a Rudyard Kipling poem about an Indian water carrier who saved the life of a British soldier as an introduction to his report:
‘Tho’ I’ve belted you an’ flayed you
By the livin’ Gawd that made you
You’re a better man than I am, Gunga Din.’
After that, George Brown’s Rapide was known as Gunga Din. When Phil Vincent decided to build a production version, he ordered the engine to be enameled black to give the new model a dignified appearance to match the name, Black Shadow.
Engineer Phil Irving, clandestinely assembled a brace of tuned Rapides. The prototypes incorporated gas-flowed cylinder heads, Comet cams, triple valve springs, polished valve rockers, ports, combustion chambers and connecting rods. 1 1/8" Amal 289 carbs replaced the Rapide's 1 1/16". These changes being good for an output of 55hp despite a compression ratio limited to only 7.3:1 by the 72-octane gasoline that was the best available in the UK at the time.
In what turned out to be a brilliant marketing move Vincent specified he wanted a 5” diameter ‘150 mph’ speedometer. A top speed of 125 mph was claimed for the Shadow, and this was soon backed by road tests. 47 mph in first gear, 64 mph in second, 86 mph in third...
Deliveries commenced in the spring of 1948 and only around 70-or-so Series-B Black Shadows had been made before the Series-C’s introduction at that year’s Earl’s Court Motorcycle Show.
