Indeed, it does.
Don't feel sorry if that name doesn't ring any bells in your memory. Find out that a while ago I did a dWrenched Special about this beautiful & crazy rider. You can read the whole article, here.
Just a short intro... ''Ernst Henne was a German motorcycle racer and racecar driver'' (...) and in 1935 he reached the top speed of 256km/h on his supercharged BMW R37. Like I said, a very good read, here.
Fast forwarding to 2016, the bike shop Revival from Austin, Texas, decided to pay homage to Ernst's land speeder by building a modern reinterpretation.
To be honest, the simplicity, the smooth unaltered lines of the engine/frame covers plus the futuristic front end had me saying ''man, what a clean machine'' out loud...
You have a frame, wheels, a (sexy) front end, a seat and a belly pad. Now go race hahaha
The Revival R37's frame is built from flat cut steel instead of tubing; unlike the original's land speeder. Instead of a leaf springer now we find in front a kinematic progressive linkage / modern shock absorber. The front end has 24degrees of rake. And beefier spokes rim. It also has a longer wheel base than the original and the engine in lowered in the frame for a better handling.
A BMW R100/7, 980cc's beats inside.
Full aluminum bodywork and fairing. Stainless steel exhaust with air foiled headers.
“His intention was to hire at least five custom builders simultaneously. All we really knew was that Max Hazan was building one, and we were building one. Of course, we were interested!
“There was a revolt within the team when I presented this project,” Stulberg recalls drily. He staved it off by deciding to build two machines: the design exercise to sit in his gallery, and a ‘real’ race bike based on the same platform.'' -BikeExif
''Even though the gallery bike will never be ridden by anyone except the Revival team, the engine has been rebuilt. It’s hooked up to a magneto ignition system with electronic advance control—since you don’t need a battery, lights or alternator for race or display bikes.'' -BikeExif.
The race bike will look the same but will be supercharged... Oh yeah. It's in ''under construction'' stage as we speak.
In my humble opinion, a supercharged modern bike would have been more than enough to sympathise with Ernst Henne's land speed bike. As they say, 2's a crowd hahaha
Nevertheless, Revival's R37 is a beautiful exercise of minimal two wheeled art based on a mad man's dream to go faster & faster. And faster...
Can't wait to see/hear the supercharged one during a race lap !
Here are a few pics of the bike ''in the raw''. Revival has a great gallery of good shots, here.
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