By 1981, England was almost irrelevant in the international game of motorcycle production. So Thomas Alexander Fermor-Hesketh (how’s that for a name?), an actual Lord and Baron who had already started a racing team, decided to start his own motorcycle company. You can guess where he got the name from – enter the Hesketh V1000.
The V1000 featured a 992cc V-Twin produced by Weslake – it was claimed to be the first Brit bike with DOHC and 4 valves per cylinder. The engine produced 82 horsepower and 78 pound-feet of torque, but the bike weighed 540 pounds. Teething problems put Hesketh out of business almost immediately after just 139 bikes were built. But the company was brought back to life multiple times, the most recent of which was in 2010 by someone who started selling an updated version of the V1000 (it looks almost the same, but with necessary fixes). For more information on the Hesketh, check out this excellent write-up from OddBike. Note that Hesketh is still alive and kicking.
This example is said to be new and unregistered with just two miles from pushing it around. The sale includes “the original factory folder containing the correct books & documentation.” Find this Hesketh for sale somewhere in the UK for $38,100 here on Andy Tiernan Classics.