Hesketh Motorcycles
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| Industry | Motorcycle manufacture |
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| Founded | 1982 |
| Founder | Alexander Fermor-Hesketh, 3rd Baron Hesketh |
| Headquarters | Redhill, United Kingdom |
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Area served
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Global |
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Key people
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| Website | www |
Hesketh Motorcycles is a British motorcycle manufacturer, initially based in Daventry and Easton Neston, Northamptonshire, England.
The company was formed by Alexander, 3rd Lord Hesketh, to develop a prototype in 1980. After two variations of his business rapidly failed, from 1984 onwards the marque was maintained and improved by Broom Engineering based at Turweston Aerodrome, on the Northamptonshire border with Buckinghamshire, England. The most recent incarnation of the marque from 2013 is based in Kingswood, Surrey, England.
The project was inspired by Lord Hesketh, who planned to revive the failing British motorcycle industry and at the time had a background of F1 racing being the last private team to win a Formula One Grand Prix, with James Hunt at the wheel. Lord Hesketh wanted to use the skills and facilities built up in that pursuit to greater effect and production of a quality motorcycle was born.
The Hesketh motorcycle was developed on the Easton Neston estate, with the prototype running in the spring of 1980 using a special Weslake engine. The V-twin V1000 (based loosely on the marketing panache of the Vincent Motorcycle but looking much-like a contemporary Ducati 860GT), offered all sorts of advances; for example, it was the first British bike with four valves per cylinder and twin overhead camshafts (although commonplace in Japanese machines).
After two years of development, the project was announced to the press and partners were sought for the manufacturing. However, none were forthcoming and so Lord Hesketh formed Hesketh Motorcycles plc. In 1982 a modern purpose built factory was set up to manufacture the Hesketh V1000 motorcycles in Daventry.
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