Frank Wrathall Outfit

[TonyW]

Feeling a bit nostalgic and wondering if Frank Wrathall's old TZ700 is still knocking about, seem to remember it being a Shelborne chassis, an absolute rocket of a bike ! as we once found out at a national at Oulton back in '82 after almost being lapped by this guy, we were only on a 998 Kawasaki, good fun but not good in a grid full of TZ's

[lang]

The bike was bought by the Andrews brothers from York, they had a rather bad accident on it at the IOM TT in 1998, it was later sold to Neil Smith.
He altered the bike and fitted a Ducati V twin engine in an attempt to win the IOM TT ( he finished in second place the previous year on a 350 )
The powers that be heard of this and made a late rule change banning fuel injection. If this had not happened I think that Neil would have won the TT.
As far as I know he still owns the bike.

[ianw]

1988 Howard? slip of the key
The ACU, besides banning fuel injection also banned engines above 600cc, so that got rid of the 1000cc twins from the class, instigated by the good old F2 club load of barstools.
Bit ironic really when it was the 1000cc class that allowed the 350's to race with them on the mainland.

[cargers]

It was a shame they banned the 1000cc twins. Your Puma outfit was a beautiful piece of engineering. Have you still got it Ian?
Ian.

[ianw]

Hi Ian, no, I'm afraid it went to France, I still regret selling it, Wal Saunders has never forgiven me for selling it

[paulsparkie]

Best era ever the two strokes proper race engine and great racing,too many bits in them 4 strokes

[cargers]

I wonder if those Frenchies have managed to get it started with the high compression ratio it had.
Have you still got any pictures of it Ian?
Ian

[ianw]

The pics are on here somewhere, tim or ronno might be able to link them.

[Big Tim]

The pics are on here somewhere, tim or ronno might be able to link them.

The thread is - viewtopic.php?f=13&t=12792&hilit=rgb+puma

Most of the detailed photos are on page two

[TonyW]

Best era ever the two strokes proper race engine and great racing,too many bits in them 4 strokes

Absolutely correct !! great days !

[paulsparkie]

[johnc]

I seem to remember it was Honda - the only manufacturer supporting the TT at the time - who protested Neil`s fuel injection and not until late in practice week - giving him no time to set it up with carbs and of course, he consequently retired. Guess who won both sidecar events! (they did the same sort of thing, when they got a wet senior stopped as their riders weren`t on wets and robbed the Welsh guy leading - on wets - of a probable win! Can`t remember his name?)

[andy bailey]

Ian is the bike still as you sold it in France?

[ianw]

Hi Andy, as far as I know it is?

[csd4t]

I seem to remember it was Honda - the only manufacturer supporting the TT at the time - who protested Neil`s fuel injection and not until late in practice week - giving him no time to set it up with carbs and of course, he consequently retired. Guess who won both sidecar events! (they did the same sort of thing, when they got a wet senior stopped as their riders weren`t on wets and robbed the Welsh guy leading - on wets - of a probable win! Can`t remember his name?)

TT94 Nigel Davies as far as I remember