Gene Schille 1600cc Drag bike

Whiteshadow15

Well Known and Active Forum User
Non-VOC Member
Somewhere in the 70's Gene Schille split up his fully custom 1600cc nitro drag bike, the frame stayed with him and the engine was sold off. The frame as many know showed up for sale several years ago on thevincent.com. Gene had a disastrous wreck when testing the bike at around 140mph, the bike and engine were then sold off when 47 years later the frame made it back to Gene and the man himself restored it to the condition you see today . The engine was lost in time and it was uncertain where it ended up. After a bit of research and looking through some old pictures we realized that the engine, all of the brackets, and massive carbs were included in our collection that had been sitting in dry storage for over 30 years.

I had randomly been searching through craigslist nation-wide for anything Vincent related and the only thing that popped up was this exact frame, what are the odds of that? Both parties have been thrilled to be able to reunite the parts back together. Still with the frame came several trophies and a stack of original receipts, engineering drawings, magazine articles, and tons of correspondence. Its been a thrill to keep it all together, I am working on contacting Gene and would love to take the bike to him sometime and hear him tell the story.

The bike was said to have ran mid-9 second passes at 150mph in the 1960's

If anyone has any pictures or random memories of this machine I would love to hear them.
 

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Whiteshadow15

Well Known and Active Forum User
Non-VOC Member
Had a lovely conversation with Genes daughter, the family is very emotional to learn that the bike had been paired up again and is in good hands, was sad to learn that Gene had passed sometime this past year.
 
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