Don Godden

For an engine designed in the 1930s to still be the choice of a racer determined to win in the then ‘modern’ era of 1968, the basic concept of that engine must have been pretty good. At that time, The Motor Cycle’s man VicWilloughby visited multi-time British grass track champion and talented engineer Don Godden to find out what the lad did to make those engines work way beyond the maker’s wildest expectations.

Immediately he found there were remarkably few changes from its inception to the latest 1960s model. The crankcases were cast in the magnesium alloy known by its trade name of Elektron, the con rod was either in Duralumin – another trade name – or steel. Willoughby went as far as to say the drawing used in the feature was an updated one from the 1930s and all the artist had to do was to erase the track carburettor and replace it with a Concentric carburettor, shorten the cylinder and