Velocette 1948 KTT Mk VIII 348cc 1 cyl OHC 3501

Velocette 1948 KTT Mk VIII 348cc OHC frame # SF 147 engine # KTT 1018

The firm of Veloce Ltd. was formed in 1905 by Johann Goodman. It was a family business that concentrated on sound motorcycle engineering principles. Their first machines were lightweight four strokes; after that a line of top-class 250cc two strokes was brought out. In 1924/ 25 Percy Goodman designed the 350cc overhead camshaft model K, a machine destined to win many TTs and other races, starting with the 1926 Junior TT that was won by Alec Bennett, who finished ten minutes ahead of the second placeman with an average speed of 66.7 mph.
A remarkable feat, since the Velocette business was a small company with at that time only about 40 employees and no racing department; racer building activities often had to be carried out in overtime by the machine building department, consisting of about 6 workers in the twenties. The TT was won again in 1928 and 1929. After the 1928 TT win the KTT was marketed as the first British “over the counter” racer. Thus began the production of a competitive racing motorcycle that was very successful for almost 25 years.
The final development of the Velocette KTT, the Mk VIII, was introduced in 1938 at that year’s Earls Court Show, and was the first motorcycle to use the now-conventional swinging-arm rear fork with a shock absorber unit. The rear suspension system was designed by Veloce development engineer Harold Willis, and was inspired by the Oleo strut landing gear on the DeHavilland Hornet. Power developed was around 30hp@6500rpm, top speed was 100mph +. In December 1939 the war stopped KTT production, which was resumed in January 1947 and ended in 1951. Pre war Stanley Woods was the most successful rider on a Mk VIII, post war Freddy Frith and Bob Foster won the 350 cc World Championship in 1949 and 1950 respectively. Approximately 240 Mk VIIIs were built.

According to the Velocette KTT Register this matching-numbers Mk VIII was despatched to Dutch importer Stokvis & Zn in December 1948. She was raced for some time by well-known Dutch rider Jan Strijbis and professionally restored some time ago. Since then she has been on display in a private Velocette collection. This excellently restored KTT comes with bum pad, Drilastic saddle and 8000rpm Smiths rev counter.