This page is a partial archive of George Amin Hoffman's
site once housed
at http://www.hooked.net/users/titangh/brough.html
and is provided here as a public service. *
Brough Motorcycles
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George Brough, whose father also made cars and motorcycles, started building Brough Superiors in 1921 in Nottingham, England. Although Broughs are still called the Rolls-Royce of motorcycles, they are more similar to Bentleys. Bentleys and Broughs had enormous performance for their day. About 3,000 were built before the company closed in 1939 - roughly the same number as pre-war Bentleys. About 1,000 Broughs survive.
The majority of Broughs - and all early ones - were fitted with JAP engines supplied by J. A. Prestwick of Tottenham. The less powerful SS80 was fitted with a sidevalve engine; the SS100 had a 998cc overhead valve engine.
Brough Superiors were expensive. All were handmade, even the nuts and bolts. You have only to look at the fittings and compare them with pieces under the hood of a modern car to see the quality. the quality, performance and rarity explain why a Brough Superior is worth $30,000 to $100,000. [And then some. Ed.]
The most famous Brough owner was T.E. Lawrence, "Lawrence of Arabia". Lawrence owned eight Broughs,
the first being called George I, the second George II, and so on. The last, George VIII, was never
delivered. It was on George VII that Lawrence had his fatal accident on May 13, 1935.
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Lawrence' s last Brough Superior SS100 [Original image missing, but this is the same motorcycle]
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Dean Rigsby's Brough Superior SS100 [Image missing]
This 1934 model was known as the Alpine Grand Sport or the "Two-of-Everything. It was the last, and the most powerful, J.A.P. Brough Superior SS-100 built. It featured an 8/75 (seventy-five horsepower) overhead valve engine with two magnetos and two oil pumps. Only six Two-of-Everything machines were built, mostly as racers. The other A.G.S.(touring) model was ordered by T.E. Lawrence.
Dean Rigsby, a purveyor of fine classic motorcycles, can be contacted at P.O.Box 30938, Stockton CA, 95213-0938 or FAX 209/599-6532.
For the Homepage and further photographs and articles on T. E. Lawrence, click here.
Another of George Amin Hoffman's pages on the weapons of T.E. Lawrence is published here, but the link from that page to the author's homepage is broken.
* If the owner of this information would prefer not to have it published here, please contact us
