National Motorcycle Museum, Solihull

George Brown's Ariel Arrow Sprinter

Famed British designer Valentine Page designed the Leader and Arrow, along with the 249cc engine which powered them. A tuned version finished 7th in the 1960 IOM TT race, something of a sensation at the time. This led to Ariel assisting the British sprint (drag racing) champion George Brown and his brother Cliff, with results which were more than satisfactory.

They took seven British National speed records on a single weekend, and established a string of new records for both the 250 and 500cc classes. In 1966 the machine achieved a speed of 122.45 mph (197.06 km/h) over a flying kilometre.

Photograph by Mike Ricketts

Ariel Motorcycles of the 1960s