Above : Built between 1948 and 1952 , the Lightning was the racing version of the Shadow , and it was the fastest production motorcycle of its era . Vincent built fewer than three dozen Lightnings , and of those , 19 matching-numbers examples survive . Photo Credit : Bonhams
runs and immediately took the record to 140mph . It was good timing in more ways than one , for on the same day Bob Burns was running his converted Vincent Rapide as a sidecar outfit , which was adorned in home-made full streamlining he had modelled from the then world record holding German NSU machine . Wright and Burns began chatting and a friendship was quickly struck up ... and that sparked the preparations for the attempt to take on two world records on the same machine . The solo record stood at 180mph and the sidecar at 154mph . Burns could see a way of fitting the streamlining he had to the Lightning which meant it could be adapted to take on the two records .
They did a deal . They would use Wright ’ s Vincent , and Burns would provide the streamlining ... and any prize money picked up would be split down the middle . Burns , being a precision engineer , would prepare the machine , and big port racing cylinder heads and special Amal TT carbs were fitted . The first outing for the machine was in December 1954 , and Burns broke the FIM record for sidecars , taking it out to 157mph . An early attempt at the solo record was staged in February 1955 but it came to nothing after a gearing error robbed the Vincent of speed . So the next attempt was planned for July , and things started well enough ,
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