history
George Brough manufactured motorcycles and cars with the Brough Superior signature, from 1919 to 1940. All the 3048 machines built were also known as the "Rolls-Royce of Motorcycles" . T.E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia") owned seven bikes and died while crashing one and George Bernard Shaw was another celebrity "in love" with Brough products.
George Brough was a racer and designer who created high performance motorcycles. Each bike was designed for an unique customer, being assembled twice: once to fit the components and after that to paint all the parts as the customers preferred. In order to create the perfect bike, each machine was test ridden to make sure that its performances were at high level.
If there was any possibility that a motorcycle could fail the test, it was taken back to the shop, so, because of this reputation of perfection and because of the high price, these machines were comparable to the Rolls-Royce cars.
In 1940, George ceased motorcycle manufacture and focused on producing aircraft components. He continued building precision engineer's tools and Brough Superior parts for many years before his death in 1969.
Brough Superior motorcycles have always been rare, expensive and preferred by a lot of celebrities, still being desired by a lot of motorcycle collectors. In 2007, prices ranged from $40,000 to more than $3,000,000 USD for such a bike.
The most popular products launched by Georges Brough were the SS100, manufactured from 1924 to 1940, the SS80 produced from 1922 to 1940 and the SS680 from 1926 to 1936. The 383 units of SS100 and the the 1086 clones of SS80 were powered by J.A.P. or Matchless 1000 cc and the 547 babies of SS680 O.H.V. were powered by J.A.P. 680 cc engines.
George Brough put his signature on cars too, making 85 vehicles between 1935 and 1939. The first one used a 114 HP, 4168cc side valve, straight 8 engine and could "fly" with 90 mph. It was followed by a little sister with only 107 HP. The last member of this family was the XII, powered by a Lincoln-Zephyr V12 engine of 4387 cc, born in 1938.
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