Author(s): Thomas Hanna

Society & Culture

Since his tragic early death from cancer in 1995, John Britten has deservedly taken his place as an original New Zealand hero. He was the man who, with a small dedicated team in Christchurch, designed and built from scratch the extraordinary Britten V-twin motorcycle. For a time this beautiful, revolutionary machine was probably the fastest four-stroke bike in the world, a motorcycle that could wheel stand at 150 miles per hour simply by opening up the throttle.

After five years of research, Tim Hanna has finally been able to give due credit to the man and his achievements. This meticulously written biography details his early life, the development of his vision and the early prototype motorcycles, and then the grueling cycle of unbelievably hard work, setbacks and failures before the Britten V-twin finally was able to beat the world's best.

His bike enthralled legions of fans worldwide, captured by the elegance, originality and power of the machine, but also by the romance of his story - an individual taking on the power and might of some of the world's biggest and best motorcycle manufacturers, and winning. John Britten is a book with appeal far beyond the motorcycling fraternity, for it has a universally inspiring theme - that extraordinary things are possible when a person can turn their dreams into reality. First published 2003.