John Milton looks at how a handful of young Australians took on the world to win the sidecar landspeed record.
The nickname ‘Leaping Lena’ has been used countless times in all manner of ways – a woman who jumped out of a Philadelphia window to avoid police arrest in 1920, pigeons, racehorses, cars, trains, even a Vietnam War counterinsurgency operation. But, for anyone with an interest in two-wheeled history, that name can only belong to a motorcycle and to one very special machine.
In the 1920s, the sport of dirt track racing was hugely popular in Australia and one of the most famous riders was a young man from Victoria called Alan Bruce. Although equally adept on a solo, it was on three wheels that he made his name, setting records at cinder tracks across the continent. Away from the track, Alan worked at Stillwell and Parry’s in Elizabeth Street, Melbourne, turning racing motorcycles and it was there he met another young man. Phil Irving also had a passion for motorcycles and thus they quickly became friends.
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By the mid-1920s, Alan already had several records under his belt and in January 1926 set a new time for the journey from Hobart to Launceston in Tasmania. Riding an AJS single with a Goulding sidecar (occupied by Charles Gregg), he managed the 121½ miles of rough and hilly roads in 2 hours and 36 minutes. It was excellent publicity for AJS for whom his boss, George Stillwell, was an agent.
Alan continued to ride AJS machines until 1929 when he switched to Rudge (which also made great capital of his successes), setting yet another speed record for an outfit. But his future would lay thousands of miles away; in April 1930 he sailed for England and never really returned to his home country.
His flamboyant sidecar riding was a sensation in the fledgling sport of British speedway. In May 1930 he, along with fellow Australian Keith Horton, made his debut at Belle Vue. Just weeks later he was challenged to a display match with Nottingham sidecar rider George Richards. Writing afterwards (Alan won the contest), the Nottingham Evening Post of June 12, 1930, wrote; ‘And now, what of side-car racing? Those who saw the really breath-taking exhibition between Alan Bruce and George Richards on Monday, will agree with me that it ought not to be allowed to lapse.’ Richards and Bruce would reprise their competition again, while Alan also put on three-wheeled displays on tracks across the country, setting a new sidecar lap record at Wembley in 1931.
But it was a three-wheeled machine of a rather different ilk that commanded Alan’s interest. Together with Phil Irving, Keith Horton and Arthur Simcock, another Antipodean who had also worked at Stillwell and Parry before moving to England, there was a new challenge afoot; to create the fastest outfit in the world. These young men had little in the way of resources – Phil was working for Velocette, Arthur for Shell, while it appears that Alan had bought a service station – but they managed to persuade companies to either supply or lend them components. JA Prestwich loaned (no doubt
realising it would be an indefinite loan) them one of its latest 996cc V-twins. Captain George Eyston gave them a No 8 Powerplus supercharger. Sturmey-Archer made a gearbox with no neutral notch. Dunlop produced some special ribbed 28-inch x 3-inch tyres. But the one company which wasn’t involved, despite its name still being associated with the eventual machine, was Brough Superior.
Phil Irving later wrote in his autobiography: ‘For some reason which was not disclosed to us, George Brough never visited the workshop, even when he frequently passed by on the way from Nottingham to the JAP factory, and he completely disassociated himself from the venture in conversation with officials of the Auto-Cycle Union.’
Someone who did support the project was The Motor Cycle journalist, Dennis May, and it was he who coined the name ‘Leaping Lena’ for the machine which is how it would be forever known. In fact, it was really only the newspapers that would refer to it as a Brough Superior. With its streamlined bodywork, built by Ewarts in Euston Road, London, it bore little resemblance to a Brough, anyway.
After four months work, it was time to test Leaping Lena, but where? It was too dangerous to test it on public roads; beaches were too rough, and it was impossible to fit the compulsory silencers required to run the machine at Brooklands. Therefore, any test runs had to wait until just before the actual record attempt which was scheduled for May 1931 in Tat, Hungary.
Hopes were high; by this time, England held the world land speed record, the air record and the solo motorcycle record but the sidecar title was held by Germany.
It was, however, not a particularly successful debut. There were a number of mechanical problems, not least immense oil leaks. In building the engine, Alan had ensured that four adjustable feed pumps would ensure that all necessary parts would be fed oil, while a fifth pump supplied the blower. Unfortunately, the system initially worked a little too well!
Back in London, the team went back to work on Leaping Lena. The next record attempt would be made at Neukirchner near Vienna and before they left, Motor Cycling wrote of Alan Bruce and Arthur Simcock: ‘You never saw two people who wanted anything quite like these two game Aussies want those records; the workshop simply smelt of want. Or a couple who worked so ceaselessly to get it. In the last week their total sleep hours would just about go once around the clock face… But what a sidecar! The only thing so far as I can see which might upset the streamline is all that lettering on the side.’
While George Brough himself may have snubbed the venture, the local Viennese Brough Superior agent was only too keen to help. This dealership was run by brothers Eddie and Kent Meyer who had moved from London where they ran a very successful agency. In fact, more Broughs were sold in Austria than in any other country other than the United Kingdom and this was down to the Meyer brothers. But even with local knowledge, the attempt seemed doomed. Arthur Simcock had to abandon a solo run when his goggles blew off while possible sabotage damaged the supercharger.
Rather than go home, Alan and Arthur telegrammed home for spares while also trying to find a new venue. They headed back to Tat where Hungarian officials had been persuaded – probably with hard cash – to allow a run on short notice. Their truck blew up on the way and Arthur had to take a train back to England for parts to repair the blower.
The final straw was, having set April 30, 1932, for the record attempt, the day began with strong winds. Despite this, Alan managed a two-way average of 124mph with a best speed of 135mph. (Instead of a passenger, he carried around 132lb of ballast in the chair.) But Leaping Lena lived up to its name; a bump in the road launched the chair into the air and Alan hit a railway crossing at 135mph, breaking the streamliner body and the carburettor. Yet he managed to keep the outfit in a straight line and come to a safe stop having achieved the objection; Leaping Lena was the fastest outfit in the world. Afterwards he would famously say; “Yes, it felt fast all right!”
Back in Blighty, Alan Bruce and Keith Horton went to work for OEC with Alan then joining Excelsior in 1934 as racing manager, later designing the Excelsior Manxman and then joining the forces during World War Two where he was posted to Germany with the Control Commission after cessation of hostilities. There he met Ursula, the girl who would become his wife, and spent the rest of his life in Germany. Phil Irving’s history with Vincent and Brabham is well-documented, while Arthur Simcock went on to manage the Australian speedway team and reintroduce speedway to Wolverhampton in 1950. But they will always be remembered for that remarkable achievement one April day in 1932.
