Brough Superior Lawrence Ultimate 2023 — Specifications

Nineteen examples. No more. When Brough Superior announces a special series, it’s not just words: the Lawrence Ultimate 2023 exists in exactly nineteen units, a number chosen with the precision of a Swiss watchmaker. Add the nineteen SS100 Ultimates produced in parallel, and you get 1919, the year George Brough laid the first stones of this British house that has become Franco-Toulouse. In the world of mechanical luxury, symbolism is never free.

What strikes you first about this Lawrence Ultimate is the way the workshops in Toulouse approached engine manufacturing. The 88° V-twin of 997 cc has not changed in nature: it delivers its 102 horsepower at 9,600 rpm and its 87.3 Nm of torque at 7,300 rpm, figures that are correct without being spectacular for this segment. What has changed is the way the cases are now born. A five-axis CNC mill directly carves from two massive blocks of aluminum, eliminating traditional assemblies in favor of a single-piece construction. Visually, the result is as much an industrial sculpture as it is functional mechanics. The engine does not gain power, but it gains presence.

The list of materials is dizzying in the best sense of the term. The tubular titanium frame carries a Fior-type fork entirely machined from solid aluminum, a rare technical choice that steers via the bottom of the fork tube and modifies the geometry under braking. The forged rims come from Dagger, without the gold coating this time, shod in 120/70-19 at the front and 200/55-17 at the rear. Braking is signed Beringer, a French specialty brand that equips the best track machines. The seat has been redesigned, the edges of the tank receive a carbon trim topped with an aluminum plating, and the controls benefit from a new finish. Every detail bears a signature.

At €71,900 excluding tax, the Lawrence Ultimate does not seek to convince the hesitant. It is aimed at a buyer who has already decided, who knows what Brough Superior represents in the history of prestige motorcycles, and who wants to possess something unique in the strictest sense. The 223 kilograms all full and the 17 liters of tank do not make this machine a tool for long touring, and no one asks it to be. The maximum speed announced at 225 km/h remains within the range of a sporty V-twin without superbike pretensions, and that's perfect. The public of this motorcycle is not looking for Nürburgring records or kilometers swallowed in rain boots. It is looking for the rare object, the perfect articulation between art and technique, the satisfaction of holding in your hands something that almost no one else will ever possess. In this area, Brough Superior plays in a category of its own.