RIP Pete Smith of Epicycle fame
- Thread starter Vince
- Start date
Quoted from another site.
....from Ian Gowanloch, for Peter Smith.
"I am not there in person but am in spirit.
A long time ago Pete turned up at the workshop in Belmore with the idea for a very long stroke crankshaft for a Pantah engine. I believe Arthur and I suggested he was hanging onto it with both hands. After he left we looked inside a Pantah engine and agreed with his opinion. We sort of apologised, like blokes do but the next step was to do it. Pete made a pile of the usual exquisitely made bits and I added some shaped bits and Arthur put it together and got the very best out of what was there. It was enormously powerful. It turned a couple of fancy and expensive close ratio gearboxes to shrapnel. It tore the centre out of the clutch. It bent the swing arm spindle. Arthur took it to New Zealand in 1987 and 1988. There was enough prize money to assist in going to Daytona in 1988. The Battle of the twins in '88 was the best race of that class ever. By '89 Ducati had done enough work on the 851 to make one offs ( I can't call them home made ) no longer competitive. The bike that Pete inspired and contributed to qualified second fastest.
It was faster than bikes from the race shops of Honda, Yamaha, Ducati, MotoGuzzi and Harley Davidson. That is, it was as good as the very best that the rest of the world's tuners and factories had to offer. Arthur brought it home. It was raced a few more times and retired. None of us strutted round with our chests poked out and our tail feathers up. None of us sort editorial attention. None of us splashed adverts around extolling our prowess. Not our style. A half dozen years later a magazine wanted an article on me including that bike. I clearly stated it was the work of three people and a talented rider. When the printed copy was published it referred only to me. I rang Pete and Artie and apologised. More than a decade later a Pommy magazine wanted info on me and that bike and I demanded that they include all three people or I would refuse permission to publish. Due credit was given.
The funniest and most satisfying accolades handed out came from Federico Martini, He was responsible for developing the F1 motor from the 650 SL while working for Ducati and then went to Bimota and designed the DB1. He knew more about that engine and bike than anybody else on the planet. A few weeks after the Daytona race he and I were dining in a fine Rimini restaurant courtesy of the Bimota credit card when he commented that our DB1 had gone around Daytona 3 seconds a lap faster than their factory model. 3 seconds around a race track is about the same as a week for non racing people. He asked how big it was and when I mentioned such big numbers he said "impossible". I replied that he had used European superbike rules in the preparation of their bike when the US Battle of the Twins series had no restriction on the use of a standard stroke crankshaft. He asked how long the stroke was and nearly fell off his chair when told. A bit more good food and wine later after discussing the benefits and drawbacks of what had been done he asked the quintessential question common to any development engineer. What did it break? With the answer "everything" we both just quaked with laughter.
With Pete's inspiration and talents and a bit more thrown in by a couple of his mates a bike was built that was as good as the very best in the world. I thought you should know. Now I can deflate my chest, put the tail feathers down and return to normal again. Thank you for listening.
It was a rare pleasure working with Pete, sharing ideas far from ordinary and working to make it all do the impossible. Being a friend was a pleasure. May his soul rest in peace."
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....from Ian Gowanloch, for Peter Smith.
"I am not there in person but am in spirit.
A long time ago Pete turned up at the workshop in Belmore with the idea for a very long stroke crankshaft for a Pantah engine. I believe Arthur and I suggested he was hanging onto it with both hands. After he left we looked inside a Pantah engine and agreed with his opinion. We sort of apologised, like blokes do but the next step was to do it. Pete made a pile of the usual exquisitely made bits and I added some shaped bits and Arthur put it together and got the very best out of what was there. It was enormously powerful. It turned a couple of fancy and expensive close ratio gearboxes to shrapnel. It tore the centre out of the clutch. It bent the swing arm spindle. Arthur took it to New Zealand in 1987 and 1988. There was enough prize money to assist in going to Daytona in 1988. The Battle of the twins in '88 was the best race of that class ever. By '89 Ducati had done enough work on the 851 to make one offs ( I can't call them home made ) no longer competitive. The bike that Pete inspired and contributed to qualified second fastest.
It was faster than bikes from the race shops of Honda, Yamaha, Ducati, MotoGuzzi and Harley Davidson. That is, it was as good as the very best that the rest of the world's tuners and factories had to offer. Arthur brought it home. It was raced a few more times and retired. None of us strutted round with our chests poked out and our tail feathers up. None of us sort editorial attention. None of us splashed adverts around extolling our prowess. Not our style. A half dozen years later a magazine wanted an article on me including that bike. I clearly stated it was the work of three people and a talented rider. When the printed copy was published it referred only to me. I rang Pete and Artie and apologised. More than a decade later a Pommy magazine wanted info on me and that bike and I demanded that they include all three people or I would refuse permission to publish. Due credit was given.
The funniest and most satisfying accolades handed out came from Federico Martini, He was responsible for developing the F1 motor from the 650 SL while working for Ducati and then went to Bimota and designed the DB1. He knew more about that engine and bike than anybody else on the planet. A few weeks after the Daytona race he and I were dining in a fine Rimini restaurant courtesy of the Bimota credit card when he commented that our DB1 had gone around Daytona 3 seconds a lap faster than their factory model. 3 seconds around a race track is about the same as a week for non racing people. He asked how big it was and when I mentioned such big numbers he said "impossible". I replied that he had used European superbike rules in the preparation of their bike when the US Battle of the Twins series had no restriction on the use of a standard stroke crankshaft. He asked how long the stroke was and nearly fell off his chair when told. A bit more good food and wine later after discussing the benefits and drawbacks of what had been done he asked the quintessential question common to any development engineer. What did it break? With the answer "everything" we both just quaked with laughter.
With Pete's inspiration and talents and a bit more thrown in by a couple of his mates a bike was built that was as good as the very best in the world. I thought you should know. Now I can deflate my chest, put the tail feathers down and return to normal again. Thank you for listening.
It was a rare pleasure working with Pete, sharing ideas far from ordinary and working to make it all do the impossible. Being a friend was a pleasure. May his soul rest in peace."
131131
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martymoose
Hero member
- Location
- Sydney, Australia
Thanks Vince for letting us know.
piranha-bro2
Hero member
- Location
- Melbourne
Inspiring stuff! So interesting to read about the long stroke conversion - reverse of today's thinking, massively oversquare, high revs etc
Dellortoman
Hero member
- Location
- Tasmania, Australia
Nice tribute by Ian G.
I remember reading about that race bike years ago. The original Pantah engine had a very short stroke of a bit over 2" so it was crying out for a bigger crank. They increased the stroke from 58mm to 74mm, so even with the stock 80mm bore their long stroke version was still over-square.
Original Pantah engine has a bore and stroke of 80 x 58 (600cc). Smith, Davis and Gowanloch got it to 92 x 74 (983cc) in the final version. Pretty impressive stuff way back in 1987. I think the Ducati factory had only gone as far as 851cc (92 x 64) at that stage.
I remember reading about that race bike years ago. The original Pantah engine had a very short stroke of a bit over 2" so it was crying out for a bigger crank. They increased the stroke from 58mm to 74mm, so even with the stock 80mm bore their long stroke version was still over-square.
Original Pantah engine has a bore and stroke of 80 x 58 (600cc). Smith, Davis and Gowanloch got it to 92 x 74 (983cc) in the final version. Pretty impressive stuff way back in 1987. I think the Ducati factory had only gone as far as 851cc (92 x 64) at that stage.
Years ago I sneaked a peek inside a set of race bevel engine cases Peter Muir was racing out of the Gowanlock shop, it was more weld than cast. They pushed the hell out of those engines even back then. I was a big fan of Kevin Magees Bob Brown Pantah. That beat plenty of the Japanese works bikes back then as well in Oz Superbike racing.
Legs
Hero member
- Location
- Adelaide Hills
Thanks Vince and RIP Pete.
Tippie
Hero member
- Location
- Dr?bak, Norway
Original first model Pantah was a 500 wasn't it?
Agree, good sentiments from Gowie.
Dellortoman
Hero member
- Location
- Tasmania, Australia
Yeah, but I think the guys used a 600cc engine for their race bike project.
The early 500's sell for higher prices than the 600 because they're the original Ducati belt engine and they're a bit rarer than the 600.
GregT
Hero member
- Location
- Christchurch NZ
The 500's are very rare now. The cases are the weak point. At the time the trick when building a good one was to use the newer, stronger 600 cases and the 500 heads. OE ports were smaller on the 500 heads - and gave more room to port them correctly.. There were a fleet of them here running in BEARS F2. I made a bit of $$ porting quite a few heads. I must have met Pete Smith at some time as a lot of the Epicycle crowd came over here for the Sound of Thunder meetings.
