1958

THE SCOOTER BOOM brought badge engineering to BSA-Triumph. Triumph designed a 250cc ohv twin but with Meriden busy turning out vertical twin motorcycles the Triumph Tigress/BSA Sunbeam was built at Small Heath, complete with an optional electric start.

AMC CASHED IN on the success of its 348cc Ajay 7R racer with a 500c version, but the G50 carried the Matchless badge. Higher compression ‘CS’ versions of AMC’s vertical-twin roadsters appeared with siamese exhausts and smaller fuel tanks. The inimitable Vic Willoughby of Motor Cycle took a fully equipped Matchles G11CSR to the MIRA test track near Nuneaton and covered 100 miles in an hour.

THE FIRST PARKING meters appeared, in London.

THE FEDERATION OF Sidecar Clubs was formed; its first meeting was held in Cambridge.

1958 ERIC OLIVER MRS PAT WISE SCAR TT 10TH DOMMI/MONACO
Eric Oliver, four times Sidecar World Champion, clearly didn’t take life too seriously. He entered the Sidecar TT and turned up on a standard Norton Dommi 88 with a Watsonian Monaco sidecar in which he installed Mrs Pat Wise and finished in 10th place.