As I eagerly await my turn on Royal Enfield's all-new twin cylinder Continental GT and Interceptor models, crowds will be gathering around their stand at Wheels & Waves this weekend. Old Empire Motorcycles will unveil their custom version while this Continental GT, 'The Lock Stock' will line up for an attempt at glory on Punk's Peak, the run-what-you-brung sprint race held on a misty Basque mountaintop. Rather than lightly tweak one of their new bikes, they've pushed all their chips into the middle for this one. Designed in-house by a skunkworks team The Lock Stock aims to showcase engineering prowess and the partnerships now associated with the aggressively growing Enfield brand. During the last few years of rapid expansion the Indian owned company has setup shop in Hinckely, Leicester to enable them to tap into a significant local pool of talent and resource. In 2015 they acquired renowned frame builders Harris Performance who now take care of all chassis R&D for the production bikes. Which is rather handy for custom projects. This sprint racer's frame is fabricated from high grade mild steel and assembled with traditional silicon bronze brazed joints. There's no provision for any power sapping suspension though, the hardtail's geometry has been designed to convert as much forward momentum as possible from the souped-up parallel twin. Up front a slammed Öhlins fork should soak up ripples in the drag strip's tarmac, but not a lot more. A Brembo HPK radially mounted caliper and single 320mm disc up front and Goldline caliper on the rear will be more than enough to control traction and reign-in some big speeds. The wheels are forged 6 spokers by PVM, 17 x 3.50 front and 17 x 5.25 rear, with drag specific Shinko Hook Up tyres. Gearing is 1/8 mile ready too, a big ol' 17 tooth sprocket on the countershaft and just 40 at the rear. Despite it's super low and stretched looks the wheelbase isn't crazy long, 1570mm, about an iPhone and a half longer than the classic Bullet. The lower fairings, tank cover, headlamp surround and mudguard are carbon fibre to keep the weight down. A striking zigzagged scheme was painted in-house by one of the skunkworks crew Pete Wycherley, saying "the Dazzle Camo paint job pokes fun at the tradition of motorcycle manufacturers camouflaging their prototypes." The leather saddle was also made by the team. The wiring loom required a fair amount of modification to allow the heavily breathed-on motor to function and provision has been made for legalities with front and rear lights. And about that engine. We'll report back in detail about Royal Enfield's first all new power plant for decades once we've ridden it but for now know that this is a different beast. Tuning experts S&S Cycle from the USA were engaged to breathe on the 650cc twin. Bored-out and with high comp pistons (ratio up from 9.5:1 to 12.4:1) the capacity is now 865cc. A ported and flowed head with competition camshaft, 38mm throttle bodies and high-flow injectors deliver extra punch while forged conrods take the strain. The gears have been undercut to reduce the chance of jumping under load when slamming through the 'box using the Translogic Intellishift quick-shifter. And of course the and the clutch has been heavily upgraded. Oh, and there's a Nitrous Express NoS system bumping the dyno figure over 100hp at a relatively sedate 7040 RPM, with 83.8 lb/ft of torque available at 5,840 RPM. Not figures usually associated with steady Enfields.

The Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels seems rather fitting after reading that last paragraph doesn't it. When we saw the guys from Royal Enfield wheeling this beast into Tobacco Dock for Bike Shed London 2018 the other week we didn't realise it was packing quite so much heat. Now we're really looking forward to seeing and hearing it tear-up the 'strip this summer. And unlike Guy Ritchie's more recent films, this project promises not to be shit.

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