c1959 Matchless Typhoon 600cc 'Café Racer' Motorcycle

Description

With a history dating back to 1899, when the first experimental prototype was built by Henry Collier and his sons Charlie and Harry, the Matchless company was a one of Britain's earliest motorcycle manufacturers. Commercial production commenced in London in 1901 and Matchless soon established a fine reputation - both on the road and in competition, with the Colliers regularly campaigning their own products. Matchless famously won the ACU 1000-Mile Reliability Trial in 1903 and the single-cylinder class at the inaugural Isle of Man TT in 1907. Matchless expanded rapidly during the 1920s and 1930s, taking over AJS in 1931 and Sunbeam in 1937, with the resulting group renamed Associated Motor Cycles (AMC) the following year. Post-war Matchless developed two new motorcycles for the civilian market, the 350cc G3/L and the 500cc G80, both derived from the wartime G3/L. The G80 Clubman, featuring an air-cooled ohv engine developing a healthy 23 horsepower and a Burman four-speed foot-change gearbox, underwent constant refinement throughout the 1950s but was always regarded as one of the finest singles on the market and continued selling strongly a decade after its introduction. By the late 1950s there were calls from American customers for more power and following experiments by the West Coast US distributor Frank Cooper, Matchless offered a bored and stroked version of the G80 CS Scrambler called the TCS Typhoon in 1959, displacing 600cc and featuring an Amal GP 1-3/8 carburettor. Although specific production numbers are hard to come by (indeed most Matchless books make no reference to the model) 125 G80 TCS Typhoons are thought to have been made, all of them sold in the USA, in both road trim (with lights) or competition specification and and sister brand AJS marketed a similarly named version of their own Model 18. Today any Typhoon is a highly collectable bike. The name Matchless disappeared after 1966, but not before it left a mark on the history of British motorcycle riding in America.