214mph 1956 Triumph Bonneville Streamliner

The 'Texas Cigar' (or 'Ceegar') featured immediately after the Ecomobile item, with William Woollard standing next to it in the National Motorcycle Museum, marking the end of the Top Gear Feet First feature broadcast on April 14th 1988. This photo was taken at Gaydon during the 50th anniversary of the Bonneville in August 2009. In between times the Streamliner was very badly damaged by the fire which destroyed the NMM in 2003 and shipped to Texas for restoration. See the picture of the blurb (in this same folder) for details of its astonishing 214mph performance and Phoenix-like rise from the ashes, here: http://bikeweb.com/node/1799.
There's also a great little story about the origins of the machine and its rivalry with the head-first 211mph supercharged NSU in 1956, here: http://historicengineco.blogspot.com/2012/02/texan-ceegar-johnny-allen-triumph.html
2019 Update: This machine is now in the new Triumph museum at the Hinckley factory. See here, and scroll down to 'Performance': https://www.triumphmotorcycles.co.uk/visitor-experience/experience-centre
Photo: © Paul Blezard

214mph 1956 Triumph Bonneville Streamliner