Besides the super-rare Hildebrand and Wolfmüller coming up for sale at Bonhams' big Las Vegas auction on January 6, 2011, scouts have unearthed an original-paint, very rare 1952 'Touring' Vincent Rapide. Discovered in a garage in Fresno, CA, the Vincent has only 8500 miles on the clock, and is virtually untouched. The 'Chinese Red' paint scheme is very popular with collectors, as the Touring version of the Rapide model has 19" wheels and painted, fully valanced mudguards...more room for paint as opposed to the normal Vincent chrome steel blades. Apparently this machine sat for nearly 50 years, untouched, and will need 'light recommissioning' to make roadworthy...ie, to find out what stopped it back then!
The bike is estimated to sell for $85-100,000, which means the reserve is probably $85k. Not cheap, but then, not many Vincents are left in original paint, with less than 10k miles!
