Brough Superior SS 100 Bert le Vack Golden Dream 2023 — Specifications

Nine examples. That is the number of times the Toulouse workshop of Brough Superior has assembled the SS 100 Bert Le Vack, a machine bearing the name of a rider who shattered world speed records in the 1920s. Nine is already an absolute rarity. So when the brand decides to extract an even more confidential version, the Golden Dream, we enter a sphere where the word "exclusive" loses all its common meaning.

This 88-degree V-twin, 997 cm3 engine, develops 100 horsepower at 9,800 rpm and 89.2 Nm of torque at 7,450 rpm. These figures are honest, consistent with a machine that claims a top speed of 200 km/h and 186 kg dry weight, built around a tubular titanium frame. Titanium, just so, is already the material of obsession for racing engineers. Brough Superior makes it a daily occurrence on this SS 100, alongside machined solid parts and aluminum elements worked with the meticulousness of a goldsmith. And then someone, in the workshop on rue de Cugnaux, decided that titanium was not enough. That gold was needed.

No imitation gold, no gold paint applied with a spray gun as seen on special series from major Japanese brands. Genuine gold leaf, applied by hand on the logo and on stripes running along the tank and rear fairing. The saddle receives specific stitching, the mudguards are chrome-plated. The result is less theatrical than the Anniversary version, which dressed the same gold treatment with more emphasis. The Golden Dream chooses restraint, which paradoxically makes it more difficult to ignore. It's the difference between a man who wears a €300,000 watch without talking about it, and one who shows it to everyone as soon as he raises his arm.

At €75,000 for the base SS 100, and a Golden Dream whose additional cost has not been officially communicated, we are very far from the Sunday rider’s market. Ducati Superleggera, Norton V4CR, Confederate, PGM V8: machines with six-figure prices exist, but they often play the card of pure performance or American folklore. Brough Superior plays a different score, that of an object that transcends time. The original brand dressed T.E. Lawrence, that British officer who collected SS 100s as others collect vinyl records. The Toulouse resurrection understood that this history was worth more than any aerodynamic coefficient.

The Golden Dream is not for motorcyclists. It is for collectors who know how to ride, for those who store their machine in a lit room like a gallery, but who still go out when the weather is nice, 6-speed gearbox in hand, biting Beringer brakes, 120/70-18 tires at the front and 160/60-18 at the rear. It is a motorcycle that one owns as one owns a masterpiece, with the awareness that its value does not depreciate but is inscribed in a logic other than that of the trade guides. For the 99.9% of us, it will remain an image on a screen. For the few elect who have it in their hands, it will simply be, and without false modesty, the most beautiful motorcycle they have ever ridden.