The Fastest Indian: Piston cast by Burt Munro for sale
A Vellocette piston cast by the legendary tuner and racer Burt Munro is up for sale, with the proceeds of the auction heading to charity.
“Offerings to the God of Speed” were the words crudely daubed on a shelf in the tumbledown workshop belonging to the legend that is Burt Munro.
Strewn across the shelf were all manner of home-built parts. Pistons, conrods, cranks and more. If it didn’t make the cut, Munro would place it on the dusty shelf, where it would live on - evidence of the sacrifices made in the relentless pursuit of speed.
And it’s on this very shelf where this piston may have once resided, as it is claimed to be cast by the hands of the famous speed racer. And while a piece of metal/art cast by the man himself is exciting enough, this particular piston holds even more significance, as it has been linked to the 2005 film, starring Anthony Hopkins.
According to Iconic Auctioneers, the piece has been verified by Burt’s long-time friend and fellow Invercargill native, Ashley Bell. Bell points to the piston’s hand-tuned appearance as the first clue to its origins. He is also quite well placed to identify the item, given that Munro would task Bell with checking some of his hand-built pistons for cracks, as the younger Mr Bell apparently had better eyesight than Munro.
Bell also owned a bike which featured one of Burt’s engines, an AJS frame with an engine made from “various Velocette parts he had stashed and others he manufactured himself”. The current owner of that, Peter Ramage, has also provided a letter of authenticity.
The auction still has a day to run, and at the time of writing, the part is sitting at $2,350 (around £1,700). The proceeds of the auction aren’t going strictly to charity in the conventional sense; instead, the money will go to furthering the career of Cormac Buchanan, a budding racer who has competed in the American Moto3 Championship.
You can check out the listing for yourself on the official website.
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Simon (AKA Toad) has been working within the motorcycle industry for more than twelve years, and a member of the motorcyclist family since birth. Growing up around British-built single and twins, it was inevitable that a life on two wheels was on the cards, from a very early age!
