World Exclusive Drysdale History Part 2/5: 25 Years on From Creation of First 750-V8

Full inside story of the Australian-built V8 Superbike in limited series production for the past 25 years, plus details of some of lan Drysdale's many other innovative creations

- By Alan Cathcart

MUSICAL MULTI

1998 saw the construction of the Drysdale 750-V8 Superbike racer, for Motorcycle Motion Team riders J.J. O’Rielly and Andrew Willy to race in local events under a special dispensation allowing prototype one-off machines of Australian manufacture to compete in Superbike racing, by waiving the volume-production homologation rule – same as in Italy to let bikes like the Ducati desmoquattro, various Bimotas, the Benelli Tornado triple and the short-stroke race version of the Aprilia RSV1000 to be developed on the racetrack. Hey - if some creative use of the rule book is good enough for Italy, it’ll work OK Down Under, too! But after initial oil-surge problems ran a bearing on the crank at the 1998 Oran Park 6-Hour race (resolved by baffling the sump), the Drysdale V8 motor proved fundamentally reliable in the half-dozen other races it contested.

The chance to ride the 750-V8 racer in 1999 at the scenic, switchback Broadford race track north of Melbourne, provided a hands-on update on two years of Drysdale development - plus, I must admit, a personal landmark, too: I’d never ridden a racer with more than six cylinders, until then. At first I was all set to wear earplugs to ride the Drysdale - but then I realised I’d have bought tickets to the concert, but not heard the music play! Listening to the haunting howl issuing from the V8’s twin under seat exhausts as Ian warmed it up not only made the flesh tingle, it also provided a window on the world that Grand Prix racing would soon become with the advent of MotoGP.