Vintage Thing No.62.1 - Buckingham 4 valve JAP 500

Here's the Buckingham glassfibre monococque resting on its headstock. What I'd really like to see is an image of the complete bike.

From my stats page for this blog, I can see that one of the most visited posts on this blog is for the Buckingham 4 valve JAP 500, a speedway device featuring a GRP monococque frame and a DIY 4 valve conversion.

It was built by Graham Buckingham who was a technician when I was a student at Coventry Polytechnic in 1985. We fell into conversation as fellow piston heads are wont to do and he brought in some parts to show me.

From above you can see the recesses for the detachable tank and seat. They were held in place by rubber straps or over centre catches.

I've posted all I know about this machine before and following recent erudite feedback on other automotive queries you might expect that I'd heard more about this curious machine.

But no. It's as much a mystery as it ever was. Unless I hear something dreckly (good Cornish word) I might just have to write in to Old Bike Mart, which is the only paper I take. Sounds drastic but it strikes me that the readership there might know something about this Vintage Thing.