It’s many years since a ‘racer’ won Best in Show at the annual International Classic MotorCycle Show, held this year over April 20/21 at the Stafford County showground, but the top honour was bestowed upon Peter Cunningham’s 1953 Matchless G45, which stood out, not only owing to its fabulous, restored condition, but because it sported a huge, polished aluminium ‘dustbin’ fairing – the type of streamlining used in racing between 1953/54 and being outlawed in 1957.
It was the Italian factories who were to the fore with the fully enveloping front fairing, while Moto Guzzi was the acknowledged master, helped by the fact that the factory in Mandello Del Lario had its own wind tunnel, a massive boon for development. The Guzzi singles were the slipperiest around, though it was Bob McIntyre’s 1957 Gilera four which probably provided the era’s defining moment, as he lapped at over 100mph on his way to glory in the eight-lap, 1957 Golden Jubilee TT.
McIntyre had a link to G45s too, for as a member of the works AMC team he, and several others, were apparently said to prefer the pushrod twin, developed from the roadster G9, to the fully fledged, bespoke racer overhead camshaft Porcupine, the model which famously, in its E90 incarnation, brought Les Graham the 1949 500cc world title – the one and only such honour for AMC. The G45
