On April 21st, the Bonhams Stafford auction house will offer this handcrafted motorbike built specifically to enter the Guinness Book of Records. It weighs approximately 600 kg and has a 4.2 liter 48-cylinder engine, obtained by combining the engines recovered from 16 Kawasaki KH 250
– Milan
In the panorama of motorcycle engineering, the search for uniqueness has led to surprising creations, such as the specialissima Tinker Toya 48-cylinder Kawasaki not built in Japan but assembled 21 years ago by the Englishman Simon Whitelock which will be featured at Bonhams Stafford’s next spring auction on April 21st. Today it is estimated that bidding for this crazy engineering masterpiece could reach £60,000, that is, approximately 70,000 euros at the current exchange rate (16 February 2024), while the starting price is set at 40,000 pounds. It is a unique object but not an end in itself, because whoever created it wanted to push itself beyond the boundaries of motorcycle design, pay homage to the innovative spirit of the past, but above all enter the Guinness World Records. The bike was never officially for sale, although its manufacturer always claimed that half a million pounds could have persuaded him to do so. However in 2011 the Tinker Toy was put up for sale on eBay with this description: “Buy it now for £1m”. But no one signed the six-figure check.
16 bikes for one
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Under the heading “vehicle engine with the highest number of cylinders”, the database of the London body which certifies records throughout the world summarizes the record in four lines. “Simon Whitelock (UK) built a motorcycle with a 2-stroke engine featuring 48 cylinders and a displacement of 4,200 cc. It consists of 16 3-cylinder Kawasaki KH250 engines arranged in six banks of eight and is approved for road use (the chassis number is SW000048). The engine is so large that it uses a single-cylinder 2-stroke engine as a starter. To create it, he was inspired by the complex aircraft engines of the Second World War, as confirmed by the name Tinker Toy, like a famous English construction game for children, but above all as a US Air Force B17 “Flying Fortress” bomber.
evolution
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The creation of the 48 cylinder went through a gradual escalation of ambition and creativity. Whitelock in fact began by independently building a four-cylinder engine, then experimented with a 9-cylinder “triple-triple” and subsequently a 7-cylinder in-line. And each project was used to lay the foundations for the next. A progression that underlines not only the desire to innovate, but also the dedication to question the rules of motorcycle engineering.
beyond all limits
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Tinker Toy is therefore more than a motorcycle, it is a mechanical work of art that contains stories of bygone eras, the thrill of innovation and the joy of pushing limits. According to its builder, it represents a beacon for those who dare to dream big and work tirelessly to turn those dreams into reality. Simon adds: “It wasn’t designed for speed, it wasn’t built for monstrous power, was made to enter the Guinness Book of Records“. To assemble it he used 16 engines from one of his favorite motorbikes, the three-cylinder Kawasaki KH 250 with a two-stroke engine: a road bike from the sixties and seventies which it weighed 160 kg and had a power of 28 HP. Performance is not officially declared for the 48 cylinder, but it should be able to reach 130 km/h.
Frankenstein 2.0
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The gigantic engine clearly features a hand-crafted exhaust system. It’s about a 24-in-1 system on both sides of the bike, which flows into a single silencer. The original modified KH 250 tank is actually just a cover that protects the ignition components, while the fuel tank is inserted in the lower part of the motorcycle. To start the 48 cylinder a normal electric starter motor is not enough, you need a 125 cc auxiliary engine transplanted from a scooter. The first tests were carried out with a 50 cc single cylinder, which proved insufficient for this task. The electricity for the services is produced by a small car alternator, while the gearbox of a BMW K100 manages the transmission to the rear wheel. Brake discs and calipers, as well as suspensions, were donated by a Honda Goldwing, with reinforced springs for the rear shock absorbers. An absolutely justified reinforcement given the total weight of the Tinker Toy is close to 1,300 pounds, which is approximately 600kg.
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