Post Sale Update: This Ariel sold for $4,550 after 18 bids on eBay.
The seller does such a good job telling the story of this bike that I almost feel silly trying to summarize it. In his words: In January of 1947 George Boskoff, a 20 year old gearhead from the South Bay area of Los Angeles, purchased this very motorcycle brand new. Feeling the need for speed, he soon went about hopping it up and fitted a smaller tank, removed excess sheetmetal, and tuned it to run on alcohol. The period photo above shows him posing on the bike in 1952. On the back he wrote about his 1/4 mile runs at nearby Santa Ana Dragstrip in Orange County, CA. He was able to reach 100.51 mph, which he noted “…was considered exceptional for a 500cc single and I must have weighed close to 200”.
Mr. Boskoff (pictured above) would continue his motorcycle racing escapades and even worked as a fabricator for Carroll Shelby for some time, building a prototype of the Sunbeam Tiger and working on the legendary Cobra. But this bike (VIN: BP3364)stayed in storage for decades until the current seller acquired it this year. What would you do with it? Keep it as is on display or restore it to its former glory and see if you could do the ton again?
Find this Red Hunter for sale in Costa Mesa, California with bidding up to $896 and the reserve not yet met