The years between the world wars are a pivotal time in the history of European motorcycle racing and also in the history of one particular manufacturer of motorcycles...Birmingham Small Arms. The BSA motorcycle factory had previously removed itself from racing after years of legendary failures including one ruinous season in which all 6 factory race bikes failed to finish the Isle of Mann Senior TT.

However, their fortunes would be due to change. Legendary racer Wal Handley was lured from retirement on June 30, 1937, to ride a 'one off' prototype BSA machine loosely based on the 1937 BSA M23 Empire Star. This new bike, slated to be run during a nondescript weekday club race at the famed Brooklands track, was heavily tuned to run on alcohol and featured a new cast-iron cylinder and head. Curiously, for spectators that day, Handleys bike had a pit crew staffed almost entirely by members of BSA’s new experimental division.

Almost immediately, the secret was out among excited motorcycle racers. BSA was back with a performance machine. In the next production year of 1938, a new BSA model was released capitalizing on this 'ton-up' lap and was called, in commemoration of Wal Handley’s dramatic lap times, the M24 Gold Star. This new Gold Star model was a revolutionary design by BSA styling legend and innovator Val Page and featured a single cylinder 500cc engine with twin pushrods in a cast-in-place tapered pushrod tube which operated double-coil springs and overhead valves. The ‘38 Goldie featured a 'quick-detach' rear wheel with a finned brake drum. Carburetion was by a single Amal TT carb. The gear case was constructed of Elektron magnesium alloy and the cylinder barrel and head were cast aluminum. Oil was drained from the head assembly by external oil lines. Lighting was a large headlamp fixture featuring an eight-inch fluted glass lens.

The front brake was a seven inch drum and front suspension was girder design featuring an adjustable friction damper. The frame, with its rigid rear section, was built from new thin-walled tubing for lightness. Each engine was scrupulously hand-built and bench-tested (as it was to be throughout the manufacturing history of the GS models) and power was rated at 30bhp at 5800rpm for 1938.

All these mods made the 315 pound 1938 M24 Gold Star a true Super Bike of its era easily attainable of 90mph road speeds in standard trim and capable of stopping from 30mph in under 29 feet. These are very impressive figures considering the tire compounds and road surfaces of 60 years ago. Also, reflecting true super bike style, the Goldie was not inexpensive.

The advertised purchase price quoted in 1938 literature was £82 10s in an age when the average British worker probably earned less than £3 per week...that would put the bike in the price range of 7 months salary. Consider that today...$25,000 or more? That would put the machine into the heady strata of modern Bimota or other hand-built two-wheeled exotica.

Local motorcycle buff Walter Worsch recently finished his immaculate ‘38 Goldie restoration, one of only 400 made in the pre-war years of 1938-1939. Production of the Gold Star was halted in 1939 during the War and was not to resume until the late Forties. This bike is one of the 4 pre-war models known to survive according to British sources.

Worsch discovered the machine as a partial restoration in the hands of another US collector and decided to start from fundamentals. Basically, the machine was acquired as a 'basket case'.

First, Worsch loosely bolted the engine cases together then installed them to check frame dimensions. The frame required serious cutting and rewelding to cure bent sections and the engine cases themselves needed delicate welding repairs since the bearing bosses were cracked from years of hard usage.

All the ancillary bits then had to be loosely installed to check fit and availability. Tedious work and long hours make up this part of any restoration since information is lacking on many of these old machines. Walter spent long hours on the telephone or poring over old photos checking authenticity and acquiring obsolete parts.