Dave sent me a pic asking 'is this Kenzo Tada'? And indeed it is; the 1930 silent film 'Faster Than Ever: An All-British Victory!', which is a British Pathe property*, has a nice (albeit silent) sequence showing the various racers on the grid for the '30 Isle of Man Senior and Junior TT... one of which is obviously Kenzo Tada himself (being the first Asian TT entrant) smiling for the camera. Photographs of Tada are quite rare; I was thrilled to see this one. A short preview of the film, provided by British Pathe, can be seen at the bottom of this post - the Tada sequence is just past the halfway point, right after Graham Walker smooches Tyrell Smith!
The film shows the amazing variety of motorcycles racing in '30 TT - in the top photo alone you can see Rudge (#9), Sunbeam (#13), and Excelsior (#11) racers.
The information we have on Tada is slim, but we know he was the Velocette agent for Tokyo (Tomeye Trading Co.) and ordered three of the earliest KTT models, one of which can be seen in the second photo, with Tada posing in his Kimono. This machine must be KTT20, 22 or 28, as these were the only mkI KTTs directly imported to Japan, all in February of 1929. The strutted Webb forks can be seen clearly, plus the left-hand oil tank filler, the George Dance kneegrips, tall petrol filler neck, and large diameter balance tube underneath the tank. I can dimly make out the cambox oil scavenge pump as well.
Tada was invited in 1930 to race at the Isle of Man TT by Veloce (along with quite a few other foreign racers), to show of the popularity and global dominance of their new model. From its introduction (1929) the KTT was sold all over the world, from Japan (3) to New Zealand (5) and Australia (5), South Africa (9), India (1), the US (1) and Canada (1), and all over Europe - 180 sold in total from January to December of '29.
Tada can be seen racing number 6, a semi-works KTT, which was the previous year's second place TT winner (Alec Bennett's bike).
In the fourth photo he is rounding Ramsey hairpin, and in the fifth, pulling away from #12, who seems to be riding an Excelsior.The bottom photo shows Tada from another angle. No photos of his four notorious get-offs!
*The film can be downloaded from British Pathe, for the sum of £586... last June, when I initially posted a few of these photos, the price was £80. Film inflation?
See my earlier post on Kenzo Tada for more on this interesting fellow.
