I remember watching Paul Lewis wrestling that monster of a Guzzi in horribly wet conditions at Thruxton. I really wanted that bike.
In 2007, when I was overtaken on the Park Straight at Cadwell by the Raceco Daytona during a track day, I really wanted that bike. I had felt its presence for a few bends prior, and when it blitzed past me it was like the apocolypse, the ground shaking like an earthquake, blasting my face with a wall of thunder as it disappeared into the distance. My friend Bruce who owned it at the time had detuned it to about 140bhp at the wheel so he could use a starter motor, but it was still a missile.
The Raceco Daytona is now road registered, and lives in Scotland. I could not afford it when it was up for sale a couple of years ago, so Bruce kindly made me one of my own. Frame mods are the same so the wheelbase is 2.5 inches shorter than stock, motor is 1225cc, weight about 200kgs wet. Not a exact replica, more of an interpretation.