Classic Racer — September — October 2017

ClassicRacer 33

Thegearboxsupporrtttstayhasbeenstifffffened

followingaframebreakage.IVANRHODES

AAAbbbooovvveee:::CCClllaaarrraaaaaasssfffooouuunnnddd–aaatttt

onetime,thebikemight

havebeensecuredfora

fiver!IVANRHODES.

Right: Thedistinctive

tanktooksomeworkto

bringit backtooriginal

factorystandard.

IVANRHODES.

that thebikewould showits mettleatthe

1931 IsleofManTT Junior race,butWillis

wasnot happywith the performance of the

engine. Apparently,poor weather during

practice meanthe could not tune the engine

and supercharger arrangementsatisfactorily.

Althoughpressreports said he removed

thesupercharger,itseemshe simplyused

another KTT withanormally-aspiratedengine

to achieve afinishin11th place.

Next year,Clara returnedto theTT and this

timeWillis persistedwiththe bike.Seemingly

thefastestofthe entireentry offthe start

line, by lap twohewas reported as ‘making

adjustments’somewhere on theMountain,

and wassoonposted as aretirement near

TheBungalow. From the event reportsofthe

time, it seems thesupercharger gave Clara

an impressivetop speed, but the acceleration

couldbeavariable quality.

Exactly who rodeClara is notclear.Les

Archer wasthe regularjockey at Brooklands,

but it seemsthe SouthAfrican JG Lind may

have riddenClara in the Isle of Man,although

it shouldbe noted thatWilliswas usually

extremelyprotective of hisprojects.

Primarily set-upfor road-racing,the bike

couldbeabit of ahandfularoundBrooklands,

but it wasapparently timedin asprint event at

an impressive114mph.Lesalso rodethe bike

in the UlsterGrand Prix, aone-offoccasion,

andfrom whichheretired,famously

declaring: “I am not afish,”asthe race was

runinwhat the Irishcall‘liquid sunshine’.

Photos exist of Clara taking part in the

1933 BrooklandsGrandPrix, with LesArcher

aboardasusual, but by then theproject

seemedto have runits course and afterthat

thebikeessentially vanished.

Manyyearslater, the PerksBrothers,of

Bilstonin Staffordshire, had quite acollection

of bikes and bits storedat thebackoftheir

garage premises.Someof this had come

fromthe Veloce factory, as the brothers were

friendsofthe factoryowners, the Goodman

family. TitchAllen waswriting his ‘Velocette

Saga’–aseries of magazine articles–

and someone had tippedhim offthat the

collection included remains of ‘Whiffling

Clara’. Titch and Ivan Rhodeswent to look

and certainly,one of thebikes had elements

of the long-lost machine.Butwas it the

genuinearticle?

Thetruthwillout

Looking likeaverydown-at-heelThirties

KTT, the bikehad beenmodified, presumably

to keep it competitive, as it hadapparently

been used forgrasstrackracing.The unique

fuel tank wasthe mostobvious clueand the

engine number –240 –appearedtoconfirm

these were,indeed,the remains of Clara.

Theenginehad the bronzebevelhousings

thhhat Willis wasknown to prefer.The

frrrame showedsigns of repair, where

thhheoriginal wasknown to have broken

atttone pointinits history. This wasin

1999 70 andthe Britishmotorcycle industry

wwwas sinking rapidly, butIvanRhodes

wwwas taking akeen interestin historic

Veeelocettes. He managedtonegotiate

thepurchaseof the bike, together with a

nuuumberof otherbits and pieces.

Ivan had every intentionofrestoring

it, but therewere manyother jobs with

greeeaterpriority. Some yearslater,when

Claaara might have received attention,

furrrther delays were causedwhen Ivan

andddhisteam were obligedtowork

flatttoutonthe bikes damaged in the

disastrous fire at the National Motorcycle

Museumin2003. However, Clarahad not

beencompletely outofmind, as Ivan had

been accumulatingpartstoreplacethe worn,

or incorrect, components.

TheabsentFoxwellsuperchargerwas

amajor stumbling block. Appeals through

the pressand evenadvertising brought no

response–evenparts forsuchadevice

seemedtobeunobtainable. Eventually,other

Velocette enthusiasts cameto the rescueand

making areplica superchargerenabled the

projecttomove forward.

Theengine hadbeen updatedwith aMk

VIII crankshaft,sothis wasexchanged for

anicely set-up,and heavier,assemblythat

had been removedfrom Maurice Cann’s ‘Dirt

Track’ engine someyearspreviously.Apart

fromthat,the engine andgearboxrebuilds

were straightforward.

Whenthe factoryceasedto use ‘Whiffling

Clara’ fordevelopment,it seems theframe

wasaltered at the factorytoreturnitclose

to standard specification,although it still

retainedsome of theoriginalfeatures,such

as someadditionallugs.Thesub-frame had

beenexchanged fora1934 version.This made

restoration lessthan straightforward. Careful

study of all the available photos revealed what

wasrequired.The engine had tobemovedback

an inchfromthe standard positionand the front

down-tube re-worked to provideamounting lug

forthe superchargerlocating plates.

Ivan said:“Much juggling took placeto

determine the positionofthe blowerrelative

to therest of the unit.Thefront down-tube

hadtobeshortened,the length of it was

critical.Thiswas atwo-manjob, but Iwas

ably assisted by apal fromNewZealand,

Pete Butterworth, avice-president of the

Velocette Club.Pete is an engineerinhis own

rightand averygood rider. He spentaweek

or twowithustohelpout withClara and the

museumbikes.”

Whenfound, Clara wasfitted with aMkIV

frontwheel. Period photos showeda1931

KTT hub wascorrect. Ivanmanagedtobuy a

newreplacementfromTom Bartlett,amodel

engineering enthusiastliving in Kent.

Ivantakes up the story: “Wewereverylucky

to have abrand newAvon3.25x20reartyre that

030 WhifflingClara_Sep.indd 33 27/07/201714:37:19