You Can Finally Own a Vincent Black Lightning Motorcycle

Bonhams never has a shortage of great vehicles in their auctions. When we saw they were auctioning off Steve McQueen’s Husqvarna from On Any Sunday during their Collector’s Motorcycles event at the Barber Vintage Festival we thought for sure it was going to be the coolest piece in the collection. We were wrong because the auction also includes a 1949 Vincent 998cc Black Lightning. Regarded by many as the holy grail of motorcycles and described as the “Ferrari GTO on two wheels”, the British-made Vincent Black Lightning is the perfect combination of evocative design, forward-thinking engineering and racing success. Around thirty were originally produced, but only 19 are believed to still exist. This particular bike is the second example ever built, has full ownership history from new and is the earliest, most original example in existence. So yeah, it’s incredibly rare. Don’t expect it to go cheap because the current world record for most valuable motorcycle ever sold at auction was another Black Lightning that Bonhams sold earlier this year. Bonhams’ Collector’s Motorcycles auction at the Barber Vintage Festival takes place on October 6th in Birmingham.