I wonder if Phil Irving was responsible for it?
Phil was quite a character, for many years he ran (amongst other things) a "agony Aunt" column in the Vintage and Veteran Club magazine in Sydney.
I know both of the protagonists in this story which made it a little funnier, I hope you all like it too.
Bill had an ES2 Norton on which he had lavished many years of improvements provided by his not inconsiderable engineering skills. Bob, the other party, had a pretty stock Manx Norton.
The two of them raced regularly at that now long gone Amaroo raceway in Sydney, a peculiar track with very specific requirements, it was the venue for many years for the famous "Castrol Six hour" race, which was won on one occasion by an R90s and nearly stolen by R75s and R100s on numerous other occasions where the implacable reliability and fuel range of the BMW damm near won out over the faster lap times set by Japanese machinery.
Anyway, Bill had developed his ES2 to the point where it damm near as fast as the Manx around Amaroo, but Bob just kept pipping him at the post.
In desperation Bill wrote something along the lines of the following to Mr Irving:-
Dear Phil, as you know, Bob __________ remains just out of reach. I have determined that it is not a power issue so much as a rate of acceleration issue. I believe I can overcome the acceleration deficit if I modify the ES2 to rev to 8,000RPM which will allow the use of a slightly lower overall gear ratio and give me more punch out of corners, which will allow me to fix that bloody Manx up after all these years.
Please, what modifications do you recommend in order to rev an ES2 to 8,000rpm?
To which the great man replied:-
If you are set on the course of revving your ES2 to 8,000rpm, I recommend the following modifications:-
1/. Relocate foot pegs to the vicinity of the steering head.
2/. Fit amour plate beneath fuel tank.
