Hailwood's Honda In Holland
HAILWOOD'S HONDA IN HOLLAND
THE STRANGE CASE OF THE MISSING RC166
THE FATE OF ONE OF THE WORLD’S most collectible motorcycles, an ex-Mike Hailwood Honda RC166, is up in the air and iffy at best.
Honda presented Hailwood with one of the amazing six-cylinder grand prix racebikes in recognition of his 250cc world roadracing titles in 1966 and 1967. The machine, with its 24-valve, 18,000-rpm engine, seven-speed gearbox and six exhaust megaphones, made a perfect showroom exhibit for the motorcycle shop Hailwood opened in the English city of Birmingham in August, 1979, with partner Rod Gould. Another British ex-racer, Gould had won the 1970 250cc world title for Yamaha.
The business foundered after Hailwood’s death in 1981. Desperate for cash, Gould was unable to resist an offer of £15,000 ($27,300) for the sixcylinder Honda from Jan Keeson, a motorcycle dealer in Holland, even though the market value of such a rare and desirable machine was probably nearer $75,000.
When Hailwood’s widow, Pauline, realized the machine was missing, the matter was put in the hands of the police. Gould was eventually summoned to the Crown Court at Birmingham in 1987, and found guilty of stealing the Hailwood machine. It also emerged that it had been shipped from England with a document falsely valuing the Honda at $750 to escape payment of customs duties.
Gould readily admitted his wrongdoing, and told the court that he was deeply ashamed of his actions. He pledged to do whatever he could to hasten the machine’s return to England. Possibly impressed by that statement of good intent, the judge imposed a jail sentence suspended for 12 months. Under this arrangement, the convicted person avoids imprisonment as long as his behavior remains impeccable for a stated period of time.
Whatever efforts Gould made, he did not succeed in retrieving the Six. Keeson, a disabled ex-racer, was, and apparently still is, adamant that he bought the machine in good faith to join his collection of racing Hondas.
Pauline’s cause has been taken up by her friend Tom Wheatcroft, a wealthy businessman who owns the Donington Park racetrack complex. Donington boasts a fine motor-racing museum, and among a predominantly four-wheeled collection are other exHailwood Honda racebikes-a 350cc Four, the ill-handling, 500cc RC181 TT-winning Four and a 500cc Four housed in a British Reynolds frame.
“My father has financed the fight to get the machine back,” says the museum’s Kevin Wheatcroft, who believes the bike will be back in Britain soon. “We have had tremendous problems, because we have to go through the courts in Holland, and Dutch law tends to protect Keeson. But it looks like things are going in our favor at last. Our intention is to display the 250 in the museum with the other bikes belonging to the Hailwood estate.”
Wheatcroft reports that Honda has been helpful in providing documentation to prove that the bike was indeed a personal gift to Hailwood.
Keeson has never shown the machine publicly, and, perhaps not surprisingly, he is shy of publicity. Currently, conflicting rumors suggest on one hand that the machine is dismantled and its engine stored in Austria, while another story has it that the Six has been sold again.
There are other examples of Honda’s Six at large. The 1967 250 RC166 in the possession of Honda Canada is believed to be an exHailwood mount. The Honda factory aired a restored 250 from its own museum in Britain during 1989, when former team rider Luigi Taveri completed a demonstration lap of the Isle of Man TT, and another former Honda GP star, Ralph Bryans, rode the bike before a thrilled crowd at the John Surtees Classic at Brands Hatch.
Swedish garage proprietor Ingvar Johansson owns a 250, briefly put up for sale last year, and then withdrawn from the market when Johansson said he had decided to hold on to his treasure-which allegedly has worn internals. No price details were released. Collectors are also tantalized by unsubstantiated reports of two more Sixes, one of them a 297cc version that Honda ran successfully against MV Agusta in 350cc events.
Roadracing fans surely prefer that historically important machines be displayed rather than hidden. Even better, they should be run if at all possible. The Donington museum’s exHailwood 500 has been made sound enough for occasional demonstration laps. Let’s hope that one day the same process might allow Mike the Bike’s RC166 to be fired up. The raucous, outrageous, noise blaring from that six-pack of megaphones has to be heard to be believed.
—Mick Duckworth
