---
title: "This is What a $500,000 Pile of Parts Looks Like"
description: "“Ninety-one-year-old motorcycle. Fossilized. No test rides.”"
date: "2015-10-23"
modified: "2015-10-23"
authors:
  - name: "Brendan McAleer"
    link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/brendan-mcaleer"
url: "https://www.thedrive.com/vintage/629/this-is-what-a-500-000-pile-of-parts-looks-like"
categories:
  - "News"
tags:
  - "motorcycle"
---

# This is What a $500,000 Pile of Parts Looks Like

![](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/images-by-url-td/content/archive-images/brough1.jpg>)
*\<em\>www.thedrive.com\</em\>*

For a half-million dollars, you could buy a Lamborghini Huracán Spyder. Jaguar E-types, six of ’em. You could have a house in the Arizona desert, a fleet of motocross bikes *and* support a George Jung-esque cocaine habit. Or, you could buy a heap of parts making up most of an old British motorcycle. Tires not included.

Built during a motoring golden age between the World Wars, this 1927 Brough Superior is an example of that era’s finest motorcycle. Most period vehicles were slow and clattery affairs; the Superior raced at Brooklands, cracked the 100-mph barrier in 1922, then flirted with the 125-mph mark shortly thereafter.

![screen-shot-2015-10-23-at-2.48.20-pm.jpg](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/content/archive-images/screen-shot-2015-10-23-at-2.48.20-pm.jpg>)
**Bonhams**

Offered for auction by [Bonhams](<https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/22727/lot/201/>), this assemblage of parts is allegedly a 1927 SS100 Alpine Grand Sport, powered by a 981cc v-twin engine. Despite being in pieces, it just sold for ￡259,100, or roughly $400,000 in real money. After commission, taxes and fees, that’d put it in the ballpark of a half-mil.

George Brough founded his motorcycle company in Nottingham at the turn of the century. He had high standards. Every Brough Superior was assembled twice: once for fitment, a second time after painting or chrome-plating. Each was then run over a timed flying mile at 100 mph or above. (The slightly cheaper SS80 was benchmarked at 80 mph). The Superior brand, as one contemporary English journalist trumpeted, was the Rolls-Royce of motorcycles. And, like a Rolls, customers could customize bikes to their exact liking.

![screen-shot-2015-10-23-at-2.48.29-pm.jpg](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/content/archive-images/screen-shot-2015-10-23-at-2.48.29-pm.jpg>)
**Bonhams**

This particular hyper-expensive yard sale has all the good bits: more-powerful J.A.P. V-twin engine, duplex cradle frame and Harley-Davidson-style front fork. The original owner, George Tunbridge of Tunbridge Wells, would’ve been very well-heeled, indeed. A Superior SS100 in this spec cost roughly as much as the average house at the time.

It's a thoroughbred, a no-expenses-spared stud for the low-flying aristocrat. Famous owners included adventurer Thomas Edward Lawrence—better known as Lawrence of Arabia—who had eight of the things, all of them named George. He survived a desert war against the Ottoman Turks, but was killed while riding his Superior SS100 near Dorset in 1935.

So, it's fast, bloody dangerous, eye-wateringly expensive and requires assembly. Evidence of the [total and complete madness](<https://www.thedrive.com/vintage/611/could-this-ferrari-be-the-most-expensive-car-ever>) surrounding today’s collector vehicle market? Yes. Also, the kind of [really bad idea](<https://www.thedrive.com/accelerator/599/the-build-part-ii-going-deep-in-amish-country>) we can get behind.

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