A very Happy Birthday to Sir Jack.

Sir Jack Brabham turned 84 on Good Friday so I'd just like to take this opportunity to wish him all the best and may there be many more yet to come.

I followed F1 racing for many, many years, only having my fanatic interest fade after the sport turned into a commercial, made-for-TV business.....say the late 1980's.

I was very fortunate in seeing Sir Jack race at Warwick Farm more than once, and compete against the likes of Jim Clark, Dennis Hulme, Graham Hill, Bruce McLaren, Jackie Stewart and many others from his era. A lot of those drivers have since died, some through natural causes (Denny Hulme for instance) but most through racing-related accidents.

So it is heart-warming to see that Sir Jack is still with us, one of the few living connections to that period in Grands Prix racing when so many drivers were killed in the pursuit of their love of motor-racing.

I look forward to posting a "Happy Birthday, Sir Jack" on his 94th. 

The Suzuki's replacement.

This is a 1997 Yamaha SRV250 Renaissa due to arrive from Melbourne next week. It is the same type of motorcycle as that bought by my son last August, as seen in an earlier post.

Yamaha initially released the model as the SRV250 (no "Renaissa" name) - essentially a Virago 250 motor put into a feather-bed copy frame. The motor was basically unchanged from the Virago except that it used 2 carbies instead of 1 and had a little higher compression; end result 27hp as opposed
to 21hp for the Virago. Weight was about 144kg.

They came out in 2 colours - either metallic red or green - with a silver alloy engine and chrome exhaust and although well received they were expensive for a 250cc bike.

So the later cut price version - the Renaissa - was released.

Silver alloy and chrome were replaced by black paint on the motor and frame and a single speedo was used instead of the original tacho and speedo. There were few other cosmetic changes and the colours were either silver/black or orange/black.


This one has about 23,000km's and appears to have been well cared for.
I'm looking forward to its arrival.