UKDRN

Do you own or know the whereabouts of a piece of UK Drag Racing History or just want info on a particular machine.

Moderators: timetravel, ukdrn

 #39315  by plymoutharrow
 
Watched Shed and Buried recently where Henry Cole and his friend bought a piece of British drag bike history. Dont know if it was an old programme. Would be interesting to find out who bought it. Any pictures/history on the bike would be great.
 #39317  by oily bike bloke
 
The episode that featured the Quartermaster (the blown 500cc Triumph) was, according to credits at the end of the programme, a 2016 programme. (Series 2, episode 10 "The Need for Speed")

The bike was also in an episode of “The Motorbike Show” where Sam & Henry ran it at Elvington on a flying 1/8th, again, according to credits at the end of the programme, a 2016 programme.

As far as I know, there’s been no mention on S&B that the bike has been sold.

The price HC said he thought it could be worth between £8 - £12,000. Personally, I’d guess around the £5000 +/- £1k............ but what do I know.....

Not aware of any pics on the web as have had a search myself as I really like the bike.
 #39343  by ColinF
 
I saw the Shed & Buried episode repeated recently and i'm still green with envy! I had the pleasure of meeting Henry Cole at Dragstalgia a couple of years ago and had his contact details, so that a friend of mine could be put in touch with a friend of his , so i thought i'd ask as i'd been wondering about it too.
Elvington was the last time it ran although he's hoping to run it at a few events this year including Dragstalgia but is so busy filming they're not sure which events they'll be able to attend.They are doing what they can to free up some dates.He says rest assured that it will return to regular sprinting how ever long it takes them to get things sorted out.
If you see him and the bike at an event go and chat to him, he's a genuine enthusiast.
 #39623  by oily bike bloke
 
I found some drag racing footage on youtube from a 1988 Long Marston event.
Its good to see the Quartermaster drag bike actually doing standing-start ¼ mile runs, plus it sure sounds nice too!
The footage was posted by “revans1410” and he’s written “My old 500 Triumph, supercharged with a drop of nitro”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXCt36iSRFQ
Bike clips start at 2m 35secs and 4m 23secs.

Searching the lunatics-lantern, came across this photo of the bike, so thought I’d post it (don’t know to to credit it to tho)
Its interesting to note that the engine appears to be a stressed member of the frame ie the engine plates are separate fore & aft plates as opposed to a single plate which cradles the engine.
If memory serves me (those with more knowledge please correct me), there was a time/class where it was not permitted to use the engine as a stressed member of the frame, as an engine blow-up could destroy the engine cases, which in turn compromised the frame realising the potential for the frame to bend and dig into the track surface.

Photo of a destroyed engine for ref.
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 #39915  by Sideslip
 
plymoutharrow wrote: Sun Mar 19, 2017 1:10 pm Watched Shed and Buried recently where Henry Cole and his friend bought a piece of British drag bike history. Dont know if it was an old programme. Would be interesting to find out who bought it. Any pictures/history on the bike would be great.
Hi, I'm a bit late noticing this forum and thread.
Ref: Quartermaster Drag Bike.

I owned this bike from 1979 - 1982 and raced it at various NSA sprints and NDRA meetings during those years.
The bike was built in the late 1960s by Norman Ashwood who lived in Kidderminster.
The NSA used to hold a Monday night club meeting (piss up) at the White Swan in Chaddesley Corbett and that's where I met Norman. He was no longer riding and wanted to sell Quartermaster. I bought it as a ready to race bike for £200.
The frame was fabricated by Norman and used BSA Bantam forks, a Honda rear hub, Triumph Tiger 100 engine and a Norton box. It ran an 1 1/4" SU carb feeding a Rolls Royce cabin blower (I was informed it was an experimental unit from a Spitfire). The bike ran on methanol with the occasional dose of 15 - 20% Nitro.
The bike was originally painted Hammerite silver, from when it was first built.
I did very little to the bike whilst I owned it apart from a couple of engine rebuilds.
Best times, from memory, were around the low 11s at around 118mph.
I sold the bike to Richard Evans, from Bromsgrove (also a Chaddesley Monday nighter) and he rode it for a couple of years after that.
Who he sold it to, I've no idea; although I did see it advertised some years later in the Old Bike Mart by a guy in Druids Heath, Birmingham. He was asking around £4500 for it!
I was quite gobsmacked when a mate of mine sent me a screen shot of the bike from Henry Cole's 'Motorcycle Show'.
It certainy brought back a lot of memories!
I sent Henry Cole a long EMail detailing the history of the bike a couple of years ago, via his production company, but never received a reply. :(
The bike recently appeared on another Henry Cole programme - 'Find It, Fix It, Drive It'.
Here's a picture of the bike in its' original livery, as raced by Norman and myself. Richard Evans changed the colour scheme shortly after he bought it.
I subsequently went on to race sidecars for 10 years and achieved my ambition of racing sidecars and solos in the Isle of Man.
Happy days! :D
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 #39937  by plymoutharrow
 
Sideslip wrote: Sun May 05, 2019 5:24 pm
plymoutharrow wrote: Sun Mar 19, 2017 1:10 pm Watched Shed and Buried recently where Henry Cole and his friend bought a piece of British drag bike history. Dont know if it was an old programme. Would be interesting to find out who bought it. Any pictures/history on the bike would be great.
Hi, I'm a bit late noticing this forum and thread.
Ref: Quartermaster Drag Bike.

I owned this bike from 1979 - 1982 and raced it at various NSA sprints and NDRA meetings during those years.
The bike was built in the late 1960s by Norman Ashwood who lived in Kidderminster.
The NSA used to hold a Monday night club meeting (piss up) at the White Swan in Chaddesley Corbett and that's where I met Norman. He was no longer riding and wanted to sell Quartermaster. I bought it as a ready to race bike for £200.
The frame was fabricated by Norman and used BSA Bantam forks, a Honda rear hub, Triumph Tiger 100 engine and a Norton box. It ran an 1 1/4" SU carb feeding a Rolls Royce cabin blower (I was informed it was an experimental unit from a Spitfire). The bike ran on methanol with the occasional dose of 15 - 20% Nitro.
The bike was originally painted Hammerite silver, from when it was first built.
I did very little to the bike whilst I owned it apart from a couple of engine rebuilds.
Best times, from memory, were around the low 11s at around 118mph.
I sold the bike to Richard Evans, from Bromsgrove (also a Chaddesley Monday nighter) and he rode it for a couple of years after that.
Who he sold it to, I've no idea; although I did see it advertised some years later in the Old Bike Mart by a guy in Druids Heath, Birmingham. He was asking around £4500 for it!
I was quite gobsmacked when a mate of mine sent me a screen shot of the bike from Henry Cole's 'Motorcycle Show'.
It certainy brought back a lot of memories!
I sent Henry Cole a long EMail detailing the history of the bike a couple of years ago, via his production company, but never received a reply. :(
The bike recently appeared on another Henry Cole programme - 'Find It, Fix It, Drive It'.
Here's a picture of the bike in its' original livery, as raced by Norman and myself. Richard Evans changed the colour scheme shortly after he bought it.
I subsequently went on to race sidecars for 10 years and achieved my ambition of racing sidecars and solos in the Isle of Man.
Happy days! :D
Image
Wow. Thanks
 #40348  by Filby
 
oily bike bloke wrote: Mon Mar 20, 2017 3:27 pm As far as I know, there’s been no mention on S&B that the bike has been sold.
Regarding the uncertainty over whether Henry Cole (HC) still owns the Quarter Master drag bike, I think the answer lies in two parts. Firstly, in an interview he made circa 2018 regarding the “Shed & Buried” TV series, he said;

“My favourite find of all time is my Quartermaster drag bike from the 1960s. I go into this shed with Sam and in the corner we see this thing that just looks like a torpedo. It’s a T100 Triumph with a supercharger on it running on methanol. We completely rebuilt it and I’ve got an eighth of a mile record of about 100 miles an hour at Elvington [on it]. I think I can get it up to about 130mph. As shed finds go, that’s one of the best we’ve found.”

Note the emphasis on “my Quarter Master”.

The fully interview can be read at:
https://www.bmf.co.uk/news/show/a-life- ... henry-cole
and is repeated on other websites.

Secondly, this week saw the screening of a new HC episode of “The Motorbike Show” featuring an electric conversion of a 1960s Enfield Bullet. In this feature, HC is seen wearing his latest tee shirt design available from his Gladstone Motorcycles website “Shop” link. The design features a drawn side view of the Quarter Master drag bike, with a stylised head of a griffon on the side of the bike’s fairing. This new design is available on a sweat shirt and tee shirts, but at £49.95 and £27.50 respectfully, my pockets aren’t deep enough - even if I wanted one

I enjoy watching the talents of Henry’s mates - “Skid”, “Millie” and Lovegrove who work their restoration magic, but get frustrated at Coles’ limited skill set. If only the guy actually got his hands dirty for once working on his own machines, I could take him a little more seriously.
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 #40350  by oily bike bloke
 
Interesting to know.........

The “eighth of mile record” was (I believe) back in 2016 at the end of a one mile run up, with a speed of 98.1mph (2016 is when the TV programme went out), with Quarter Master running a 4 inch drag racing slick rear tyre.

Jump to a programme that went out in April 2019 where they build the transporter van from an old Morris ambulance, and the rear slick is replaced with a road tyre on Quarter Master for runs over the mile at Elvington with timings at the half mile and mile.
This time they achieve 115.6mph at the end of the mile.

Just out of interest speed wise, a similarly engined 500cc Triumph sprint bike, (tho unit as opposed to Quarter Master’s pre-unit) but normally aspirated and not running on methanol, was recorded at 101.6mph at the end of a standing-start quarter mile at Brighton in 2016.
These old 500cc Triumph lumps, when let loose on the standing quarter, can tramp on, just look at what John Hobbs used to do!

Perhaps there’ll be a prog where Quarter Master gets to run on a quarter.
 #40358  by Filby
 
The Shed and Buried programme featuring Quarter Master was Series 2 Episode 10 - “The Need for Speed”. Regarding the image credit of the first colour picture posted on this topic, I’ve not discovered the name of the photographer, but two mainstream media companies who handle such PR exposure. They are atlas.metabroadcast.com and pressassociation.com (simply known as pa.media)

I found an online screen grab of the bike during restoration, while the remaining images are all from metabroadcast/pa supporting the TV episode
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