One of the greatest engine tuners of any generation, Tony Scott’s work is synonymous with Honda’s RC30. But Tony won TTs with every manufacturer, in a career spanning some of the greatest names and greatest bikes of the modern era.
Engine tuner Tony Scott, who died in October aged 74, has a record of road race victories second to none. Between 1985 and 2012, his engines took 30 wins at the TT and 24 at the Manx GP – with more than 130 Isle of Man podiums in total across Honda, Suzuki, Kawasaki and Yamaha engines.
Tony’s work also took 18 North West 200s, 19 Ulster GPs and two Macau GP victories in addition to numerous British short circuit championships. He won in every British Championship class, from 125cc two-strokes to 1300cc four-strokes, and took three TT F1 World titles with Carl Fogarty on a Honda RC30.
Although it was his work with Foggy and Honda’s V4 that brought him to prominence in the late ’80s, Tony’s love of bikes and the Isle of Man stretched back to his childhood. Tony’s father had a bike and, as a teenager, Tony built his own trials bikes. He first visited the Isle of Man in 1957, aged 14; by 15 he was working in the motor trade, tuning rally car engines in his spare time.
Tony’s transition to bike engines came in the early ’80s, literally by accident. A bike crash in 1982 left him with a badly injured right arm; as a result he had to give up work. While he recovered he began going to bike races, and started tuning engines for a friend, Keith Nichols, who then started winning. As Tony once explained to PS, “When I was tuning rally car engines back in the day, there were a lot of good engine tuners. When I got into bikes, I thought there’d be just as many – but it wasn’t the case. I was surprised how poor the workmanship was. So we were winning straight away.”
Tony’s early success came with two strokes: “Race bikes were predominantly two-strokes, so I tuned them,” he told us. Tony’s engines took the British 125 and 250 Championships. Around this time, a young rider called Carl Fogarty was doing well on Honda’s RS250.
Denne historien er fra January 2018-utgaven av Practical Sportsbikes.
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Denne historien er fra January 2018-utgaven av Practical Sportsbikes.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Gold Rush
A stock 2014 CB11 is, let’s face it, a fairly dull device. But chuck some engine tweaks and a cosmetic makeover at it and all that changes.
Tony Scott - A Life In Engines
One of the greatest engine tuners of any generation, Tony Scott’s work is synonymous with Honda’s RC30. But Tony won TTs with every manufacturer, in a career spanning some of the greatest names and greatest bikes of the modern era.
Origin Of The Species
In the 17 years between Suzuki’s GS1000S in 1979, via Yamaha’s 1989 FZR1000R EXUP, to Honda’s 1996 CBR900RR-T ’Blade, the face of big-bore sportsbikes changed beyond recognition. PS celebrates this huge evolution.
Fettled Kettle
Tony Edwards, it’s fair to say, is obsessed with Harris Magnums. He’d never seen a Kettle engined Magnum 2, so he set about building one. Two years (and thirty four grand later) here it is.
Lester Harris
Hertfordshire’s most famous sons are now involved in developing new Royal Enfields, yet they’re still right in the thick of old school tubework and their stainless steel paddock stands are still the industry standard.
Shafted By The Weather Gods
The H1F’s crank was a sorry rusted mess. Now it is a thing of great beauty and strength.
Special Build Of the Year
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Dukes And Hazards
The Isle Of Man is an unforgiving place for any machinery, not least big twins from Bologna. Despite meticulous prep, a small stone did forJames Hillier’s Classic TT.
Greek Tragedy (With A Happy Ending)
It arrived from Athens, a hound with a bag of nails in its jaws. After untold amounts of pain, suffering and expense, Tony Barrow’s RG finally emerged, as the pristine square four he always craved.
Droop Snoot Beaut
It ‘only’ took Mike Newman four years to get his Bandit/’busa/ZX-9/10 hybrid into exactly the shape he wanted. Now it’s precisely the machine he had in his head all that time ago.
