Prototype Triumph Hurricanes

On April 14, 1972, the last BSA motorcycles to be built at the once mighty Small Heath factory in Birmingham, England, were completed: 11 Rocket 3s and seven B50SS Gold Stars. From then on, “BSAs” would be badged as Triumphs and built by new owners Norton-Villiers-Triumph.

That should have meant the end of the production line for BSA’s Rocket 3. Though surprisingly, it reappeared in 1973, disguised in an outlandish new livery and with a Triumph badge. It was also given an appropriately attention-grabbing name: Hurricane.

Essentially, underneath the Hurricane’s swooping, Craig Vetter-designed bodywork was a BSA Rocket 3 with its three cylinders canted forward (unlike the Triumph Trident’s upright arrangement). The drivetrain went into a mildly modified Rocket 3 chassis with a Ceriani-style fork and the NVT-Group conical hub brakes running on Borrani rims. But the star of the show was Vetter’s one-piece fiberglass bodywork, with its voluptuous curves, containing the fuel tank and forming the “one-and-a-half” seat. Equally unsubtle was the exhaust arrangement of three chrome pipes sweeping up the right side of the bike. Regardless, the Hurricane’s out-there styling earned it a place in the Guggenheim Museum’s Art of the Motorcycle exhibition of 1998.

But where did the Hurricane come from? And why?

Triple trouble

The history of the BSA-Triumph triples has been documented many times but is worth a review in the present context.

In the early 1960s, anticipating bigger capacity bikes from Japan, Bert Hopwood, Doug Hele and Jack Wicks at Triumph produced a prototype triple that looked like a slightly chubby Bonneville. With swift development, it could have been on the market years ahead of the Honda 750. But BSA Group management, feeling secure in their dominant market share in the big capacity classes, procrastinated.

So when news broke of a multi-cylinder bike from Honda, BSA was obliged to react, and fast. They could still have been well ahead of the competition but for a hold-up at the Group’s bureaucratic R&D facility, Umberslade Hall. The mandarins decided to outsource the new bikes’ styling to Ogle Design. And while Ogle has been widely criticized for their clumsy, design-by-committee Trident and Rocket 3, the company actually had a good track record in automotive design, having penned the iconic Reliant Scimitar GTE.

Response to the BSA-Triumph triples as they arrived in 1969 was lukewarm in the U.K. and decidedly negative in the U.S. “The bike looked like it couldn’t decide whether it was a dray-horse or a spaceship,” wrote Steve Wilson in his book BSA Motorcycles since 1950. Styling aside, the Rocket 3 and Trident were up against the new Honda 750 Four, with its front disc brake, 5-speed transmission, and — critically — electric start. It was also significantly cheaper …

So BSA-Triumph entered the Seventies with their premier products, the Bonneville, A65 Lightning, and the new 750 triples, all beset by aging technology, questionable styling and indifferent quality. BSA U.S. Vice-President Don Brown was not amused. In spite of the triples’ recording new endurance and speed records at Daytona and Bonneville and Dick Mann winning the 1971 Daytona 200 on a Rocket 3, sales still slumped. Brown went into action.

Better than Vetter?

Although marred by their clumsy styling, the 1969-1970 Rocket 3 and Trident were highly competitive in performance and were the fastest production machines you could buy at that time. But Craig Vetter wasn’t the only one working on the Triples’ appearance.

In 1971, the Trident appeared with a conventional Bonneville-shaped gas tank and seat, while the Rocket 3 acquired BSA’s new frame color of Dove Gray, topped off with a chrome peanut tank. Both models got the Group rubber-mounted instruments, turn signals, wire headlight mounts, and conical hub brakes. Gone were the bread box gas tank and ray-gun mufflers. And while the Hurricane’s styling worked for the U.S. market, it didn’t go down so well at home. The 1971 R3 and Trident models clearly echoed the styling of the 1971 Bonneville and BSA Lightning but were still a big improvement. It certainly impressed one 21-year-old motorcycle nut.

I bought my 1971 Rocker 3 in 1999, and after restoration, rode it intermittently for some years, but I never felt comfortable with it. While the engine power and handling were impressive, plenty of other features weren’t. It clearly needed a fifth gear (introduced later in the model year), and the TLS front brake was a joke, totally incapable of slowing a 500-pound, 125mph projectile. I found a willing buyer in Denmark.

Like the Hurricane, only around 1,200 1971 Rocket 3s were sold, and a further 200-odd (now with black-painted frames) in 1972. To my eye, it’s still the sharpest-looking of the Triples.

New clothes

In early 1969, he had become aware of a creative yet practical young industrial designer called Craig Vetter. Brown contacted Vetter in April and offered to provide a donor Rocket 3 for him to use as a development mule, subject to a satisfactory meeting at BSA in New Jersey. (BSA Group management in the U.K. knew nothing of this.) The June meeting went well, and Vetter left with a production Rocket 3 to experiment on, with the stipulation that the work would be paid for only if the bike went into production!

Vetter had previously produced custom bodywork for the Suzuki Titan and learned much in the process. His new bodywork would use its voluptuous shape to capture attention and hold it there. The one-and-a-half-inch over the front fork and short seat echoed chopper styling, while the right-side stacked exhaust screamed flat-track. And larger fins on the cylinder head implied higher power. Subtle it was not.

“The function of my design was to say, look at me because I’m special,” Vetter is reported to have said while admitting that it was also designed to make its rider noticed by women. This sentiment was apparently echoed by BSA-Triumph U.S.A. president Peter Thornton when he first saw it, exclaiming, “It’s a bloody phallus!” but slyly adding, “Wrap it up and send it to England.”

“476”

There is no report extant as to how the Vetter-BSA was received at Umberslade Hall, but in 1971, drawings and moldings based on Vetter’s design were produced, leading eventually to two pre-production prototypes, identified as “476” and “399,” according to Triumph Owners Motorcycle Club President Roy Shilling. BSA factory records show that 476 was dispatched to BSA East Coast in Baltimore, Maryland, on Dec. 22, 1971, then taken to a trade show in Houston, where Craig Vetter was photographed sitting on it on Feb. 12, 1972. At this time, it was still badged BSA and bore the frame and engine numbers “V7V 00476” on a BSA-stamped background.

According to Shilling, 399 was sent to Triumph in Meriden, England, for their experimental team to evaluate.

476 was rediscovered in a motorcycle store in San Diego some years later when the present owner spotted it in a dealership while out riding his BSA. Not fully realizing its significance, the dealer sold 476 to him. The new owner rode 476 until 1981, when it was parked. Recently rediscovered, 476 has undergone some tidying and fettling and has been consigned to auction by Classic Avenue.

Vetter’s own prototype would eventually be donated to the U.S. National Motorcycle Museum.

The Windjammer and the Mystery Ship

Aside from the Hurricane, Vetter is probably best known for his range of aftermarket motorcycle fairings, including the Phantom and the Windjammer. Phantoms were introduced in 1966 in various designs to suit a selection of motorcycles. The Windjammer replaced the Phantom in 1971 with a unique design intended to fit all motorcycles. Over the next eight years, 400,000 Windjammers were produced in six variations.

Just as iconic as the Hurricane is the Vetter Mystery Ship of 1980. Only 10 were built, each identified by a “racing” number printed on the fairing (Craig Vetter and the Mystery Ships). The connection: more efficient aerodynamics and reduced drag for better fuel economy epitomizing Vetter’s personal philosophy of “doing more with less.”

Vetter also organized a fuel mileage challenge between 1980 and 1985. The goal was to achieve the minimum fuel consumption over a set course using streamlined bodywork. The challenge was reintroduced in 2010 with revised rules to include electric motorcycles. From 2011 to 2013, Fred Hayes took the #1 spot with his diesel-powered, Vetter-faired streamliner. Charley Perethian’s 1983-winning Yamaha 185cc streamliner sipped its way to win with a remarkable 372mpg (U.S.) and is now exhibited at the Smithsonian Institution.

“399”

The story surrounding the other pre-production machine known as “399” is a little less clear. It should be the other pre-production Hurricane, but its provenance is confusing. As noted, it was originally dispatched from BSA in Birmingham to Triumph Meriden for evaluation by their experimental department.

The BSA-badged machine stayed in the U.K. and was acquired, presumably on the closure of the Meriden factory around 1983, by John Simmonds of the Trident & Rocket 3 Owners’ Club, who owned it until his own passing in 2023.

Part of the mystery is around the engine/frame numbers stamped on the Simmonds Hurricane. There are no markings referring to “399”: The frame and engine are both stamped with BSA-Group production markings of NE00198 A75R, indicating a four-speed Rocket 3 with a build date of October 1970 (1971 model year). The U.K. license attached to the bike is EBW172J for the 1971 model year. (Note that U.K. license plates typically stay with the vehicle for life.)

So, were there three?

Is NE00198 the missing “399” or not? Regardless, its provenance as the missing mule has been verified by the BSA Owners’ Club with evidence that only two pre-production prototypes were built. This is further supported by personal correspondence and other published stories.

H&H Auctions subsequently listed NE00198 for sale in 2023, and it was purchased by Britain’s National Motorcycle Museum for £27,000 (around $45,000).

The Hurricane was launched as a Triumph motorcycle (the BSA brand then being extinct), and while only around 1,200 were built (presumably using up the stock of Rocket 3 parts), the Hurricane caused quite a sensation, boosting the cachet of the Triumph brand. MC