The bikes racing at Daytona competed in the AMA 'C' class which meant that they had to be production machines, available over the counter to the ordinary buying public.

Some departures from standard were allowed such as an oil filter. BSA fitted a filter made by Vokes, a company specialising in filters for all kinds of applications.  Since the filter fitted to Daytona bikes was also fitted to Ferrari cars, diesel trains, planes and anti-aircraft guns we didn't think it would be difficult to find some originals.

Initially our calls to dealers supported this  - many thought "they had some lying around somewhere..." but  when they looked, couldn't find
any.  This pattern quickly repeated itself and depression set-in. We began to realise that we might have to look for a very long time. 

In a flash of inspiration, we contacted Vokes who are still in business and after a chain of phone calls eventually spoke to Chris Pamplin. Chris restores classic cars so was not only sympathetic but interested in our cause and tried calling around his contacts to see if he could find some filters - but like us, drew blank.

There was only one solution according to Chris. He would just have to make some filters from scratch. There would only be a few and it would take a long time, but Chris was confident and enthusiastic.

And so we did. The re-manufacture of a small batch of Vokes E37-L filters became a sub-project project within our overall restoration project.

Chris first had to find the original drawings. Luckily he did this just before they disappeared during a periodic clearout.

We also had a Daytona Gold Star owned by Ken Rosevear in Canada as a reference - it still has the filter fitted.

He then had to make jigs and tools - the parts that made the parts.  We also needed to cast a small batch of head caps. The small number required and limited project budget meant that die casting was out of the question.

Although the detail and finish required inclined us towards lost wax casting, a foundry with experience in wax and sand casting both persuaded us to try sand casting and we were not disappointed.

Vokes filter disassembled

The first filter was complete in April 2003  Target for completion of our small batch is July 2003, before final re-assembly of the bikes.

Chris 'Dr. P' Pamplin of Vokes We'd like to express a colossal amount of thanks to Chris FOR the WORK HE put into making these filters - we couldn't have done it without him!