AUTOWEEK MAIN 05-20-02 A 21 5/9/02 11:22 AM Page 1

THE GURNEY ALLIGATOR

Gurney’s ’Gator is not just another motor- cycle. Startling in both appearance and The Gurney Boys and specification, it features a radically low solo seating position, a single hopped-up Honda cylinder and a price tag of $35,000. Their Naughty ’Gator Idiosyncratic? Sure. did not become famous for his orthodoxy. The American was never content to be one of HE’S LEGENDARY FOR HIS RACE CARS. SO WHY the finest racing drivers in the world, often IS DAN THE MAN REINVENTING... THE MOTORCYCLE? mentioned in the same breath with the great Jimmy Clark and named to F1 teams BY PETE LYONS for the Gurney Alligator—a hand-built, by the likes of , and Brab- high-performance street bike produced by ham. Gurney won three Grands Prix, and is office walls are festooned Gurney and his family in the same shops, placed as high as third in the world cham- with mementos of race cars and and by some of the same hands, that once pionship (1961) with established factories. races and racing friends, but one built F1- and Indy-winning Gurney Eagles. Yet he stepped off a seemingly assured picture of a street-going motor- Thus one April evening Justin, now 30 career ladder to make a marque of his own. cycleH tells you a lot about Dan Gurney the (and this time wearing a helmet), burst out In 1964 Gurney and then-partner Carroll man. Snapped in the early ’70s, it captures of a giant plastic foam “Alligator Egg” aboard Shelby founded in him blasting along on a CB750 Honda, then the 001 bike during a hatching ceremony Santa Ana, California, to build Eagle open- the King Kong of Superbikes. In a baby at the Petersen Museum in Los Angeles. wheelers for FIA, USAC and SCCA racing. sling on Gurney’s back is his six-month-old Gurney, who recently turned 71 but doesn’t Eagles became a major force in Indy compe- son Justin, little fists gripping dad’s shoul- behave like it, assisted the birth wearing tition, with three victories at the Speed- ders. Both boys’ hair is blowing free in the surgeon’s garb along with that famous grin. way and many more elsewhere. AAR also wind, and identical grins split their faces. For once, product outshone presentation. built contenders in F5000, Can-Am and Think whatever PC thoughts you will Trans-Am. Later, -Eagles dominated about it, you see the real Dan Gurney on the endgame of the old IMSA GTP series. that bike. What’s more, “Justino” survived That engine manufacturer then chose AAR the ride to become not only a keen rider to carry it into CART, though results were on his own, but stylist and project manager disappointing to both parties.

AUTOWEEK MAY 20, 2002 21 AUTOWEEK MAIN 05-20-02 A 22 5/9/02 11:24 AM Page 1

THE GURNEY ALLIGATOR

Gurney himself continued winning races eyes. “You mean: You old fogy, why do personal reason: the challenge of reaching a the multitube chassis backbone, based on through his last year in the cockpit, 1970. you keep pushing...?” The steely retort long-visualized goal. “It’s a bit like a part- knowledge absorbed during his friendship But probably his personal highlight came actually is answer enough; the man simply ing shot,” he admits. He daydreams about with . AAR veterans includ- on the 18th of June, 1967—one magic week is made that way. But he does have a specif- building a sports car someday, but right ing the legendary Phil Remington fabricate after co-driving a Ford to first at Le Mans— ic rationale for what he’s doing. now he’s intent on this sport bike project. that frame, the extruded aluminum rear when he scored his fourth GP victory with It starts with the loss of his engine spon- He loves motorcycles, and the Alligator is suspension swing arm and most other parts, his very own Eagle on Belgium’s fearsome sor, which took AAR out of racing. That very much his motorcycle. He thought it though the front forks and brake package Spa-Francorchamps circuit. was a bitter blow at the time, but although up. He helped design and build and test five come straight from Honda’s ultra-fast 954. Thirty-five years later, that remains a Gurney has been mentoring son Alex’s prototypes. He persisted with his idea for Front and rear lights are from another unique American accomplishment. It’s career, he has no interest in returning his 26 years, he paid for it and now, dammit, Honda, but the carbon fiber bodywork is being deliberately recalled by the dark company to the fray. he means finally to manufacture and sell it. laid up and baked in a corner of AAR that metallic blue and pearl color scheme of “I feel as though we’ve escaped,” he Doing so climaxes a fascination for used to make Eagle GTP and Champ Cars. Gurney’s Alligators, same as his F1 Eagle, recently wrote to friend John , “and bikes incurred in boyhood. “One of the first The air-cooled one-cylinder starts life as and by the 36 limited-edition “Grand Prix” I do not want back into an arena which has books I ever read was called The Speedwell a new Honda 650 with electric-start made ’Gators he’s planning to turn out initially. been taken over by bureaucrats and rich Boys on Motorcycles,” Gurney remembers, for an enduro bike. Subcontractor Drino Miller punches it out to as much as 710 cc, adds hotter cams and replaces the stock “One of the first books I ever read was called The Speedwell Boys on Motorcycles. carb with fuel-injection. Output is better My infatuation with racing cars and motorcycles occurred almost in concert.” than 75 horsepower. Competitive four- Eagle Over Spa cylinder bikes offer more power, but weigh smiling. “My infatuation with racing cars If you coddled kids of today want to know why Gurney messed up his start, losing seven more than the Alligator’s 320 pounds and and motorcycles occurred almost in con- Big Dan Gurney is such a hero to us old-timers, positions before the first corner, and spent the their riders catch more wind. Without admit- cert.” As a teen he had both, and freely one clue is what he did one June day 35 years first stage of the 245-mile race driving catch-up. ting he’s tried it, Gurney reckons his bike modified them. “Those were great days, ago. He won a European Grand Prix in his own He was closing on second-place Stewart when should do 140 mph. He’s confident it’ll go when you were allowed to do that.” F1 car—one he’d helped design and produce in Clark dropped out of the lead with a bad plug. 0 to 60 mph quicker than anything on the One modification he made on a dirt bike his own factory in California. Only once before But at the same point Gurney made a quick stop road. (“It explodes off the line!”) He also led directly to the Alligator. Tall, Gurney had a like feat been accomplished, and in the to report low fuel pressure. When he dashed out claims exceptional braking performance often felt unstable on steep hills, as though 1921 French GP Jimmy Murphy wasn’t the owner/ again, Stewart’s advantage with the 16-cylinder and reassuring handling, both thanks to his weight were about to pitch the short- builder of “his” American-made Duesenberg. BRM was 16 seconds. the low center of gravity. He is careful to coupled machine over its downhill wheel. Nor has any American car won a third GP. Gurney in a hurry was one of motor racing emphasize the importance of never letting So he tried taking the seat off. “I’m sitting Not even Gurney’s. history’s great sights. Tall in the cockpit, face a one’s forward-jutting foot snag on the road a little lower, and it felt better. I thought, Way back in 1967, all bright things seemed frozen mask of concentration but fists a blur on or a curb, to prevent potential injury. ‘How about if we went as far as we can...’” possible. Americans loved . the wheel, he directed the car with an uncanny Gurney admits he’s probing a tiny niche The result was a 1976 experiment now had won the world championship, and now Dan blend of fluid delicacy and utter determination. market. Customers? “Someone who wants dubbed The Grandfather. Based on a 350 Gurney seemed a good bet to follow him. His new Swooping through woods and farmland, touching to buy the Ferrari of Singles... that loves Honda dual-purpose model, its wheelbase Eagle was world-class, quick and aesthetically 196 mph in places, the Anglo-American Eagle once ‘More Smiles per Mile’... has a naughty was lengthened so the rider could sit down gorgeous too, a shapely missile of titanium and again caught and this time passed the all-British element in his character, and one that can low behind the engine. “We liked it a lot,” magnesium packing a British-made V12 BRM. The effort earned Gurney the lap record at afford to pay 35,000 bucks for a bike.” Gurney says, “but pretty soon it was not thought to be the most powerful in F1. nearly 149 mph. His race average was 145.74— The Alligator is not intended for racing, powerful enough and too heavy, and it got together made a promising the fastest ever run in Europe. Gurney emphasizes, but he tried to put a more laughs than it should have...” combination for the Belgian GP at Spa-Francor- “As I look back on it I’m more amazed that lot of his racing experience into it. “If you Disregarding the jibes, Gurney, his sons champs in the Ardennes forest, an 8.75-mile we could do that with the resources we had, or have been a race driver, you were kind of and his friends continued experimenting natural road circuit of the classic style: narrow, didn’t have,” Gurney grins today. “It was enor- on top of the pyramid and you got to sam- with his “long-low motorcycle” idea, build- hilly, frighteningly fast and desperately dangerous. mously gratifying for a professional racing driver ple a whole bunch of really cutting-edge Justino and Dan in the AAR shops, discussing the finishing touches on Alligator 001. ing and evaluating a series of ever more Gurney relished the challenge. He qualified that dreams of such things... Of course, you have machinery that nobody else did. refined prototypes. Along the way they second for the three-wide front row, between targets that include doing it more than once! “So you say to yourself, wouldn’t it be Why 36? That’s the number his car wore corporations. They have come up with abandoned the original off-road concept and the Lotus-Fords of world champions Jimmy Clark “In view of the fact that it hasn’t been done nice to make something [cutting-edge] at Spa. Okay, but why a motorcycle? Why rules that stop creativity and progress, so honed the bike for highway sport riding. and . Behind them were the likes of since, and that we did it, even though it was only that I could still ride, and also my friends such a weird one? And why “Alligator”? they don’t have surprises.” For years it was no more than a weekend , and , one it was quite a thing. I mean, you talk about or customers could ride. Is there something Again, it’s the genuine Gurney coming But Gurney has loyal, longtime employ- hobby, but dropping out of CART forced and such machines as Cooper-Maseratis, , puttin’ the mark up on the tree as far as you can I could bring to the table that maybe other- out. Behind the movie-star face and easy ees to think of, including three of his six Gurney’s business into survival mode— BRMs and -. reach, it’s a pretty good one!” � wise wouldn’t get there, because of my amiability lurks a ferocious heart and children—older sons Danny and Jimmy his words. It was time to find out if the background and all the efforts we made to stubbornly independent mind. Though also work at AAR with Justin. So does wife Alligator had commercial potential. understand what makes one race car good infamously unable to leave well enough Evi. The present staff numbers 35. Many The name? It was suggested by AAR appearance despite the unusual seat. The spine has to be more erect so the hands can and another one not quite so good.” alone, he stands unrepentant. “Don’t you are busy on a project for the U.S. Navy, head machinist Jerry Whitfill, and Gurney wheelbase looks long, but at 60 inches reach the bars. What appears to be a tradi- Does he mean to reinvent the wheel? want to win?” he’ll snap impatiently. in addition to the Alligator, and the compa- immediately agreed it was perfect for a it’s only a couple of inches longer than a tional gas tank is actually an intake plenum Of course not. Everybody knows that’s the Dare to suggest that a man his age, of ny still has facilities and expertise to offer long, low-slung, “naughty” machine that conventional sport bike. The solo rider sits for the fuel-injected engine; fuel is in a definition of futility. But reinventing the his accomplishments, his stature in legend, the racing and/or restoration industries “has a good bark to it.” just above hub level, legs extending forward 3.3-gallon composite cell just ahead of and two-wheeler? Dan Gurney, born maverick could decently fade into retirement, and (www.allamericanracers.com). Sixth in the line of designs, the A-6 almost as in a car. Though the position beneath the seat, protected by framework. and relentless competitor, is happy to you get a flash of anger from those raptor Besides those factors, Gurney has a production model has a graceful, finished recalls that of a recumbent bicycle, the Gurney takes credit for laying out gamble that’s another story. �

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