The Bruce special was built by Charlie and his brother John of Motherwell. It was based around a 150cc New Imperial unit engine, to be eligible for the Scottish 150cc racing class. The full duplex swinging arm frame was a one-off built by Charlie Bruce with help from Joe Potts. Due to the lack of proprietary motorcycle rear suspension units, Charlie converted bomb door jacks that Joe had been manufactured in his engineering firm as part of the war effort and were also used on his 250cc Velocette MAF.
The ‘Bruce Special’ was raced by John Bruce at various Scottish circuits during the early 1950’s, including Beveridge Park and Crail, as well as sand racing events. In 1952 the ‘Bruce Special’ carried the number 1 plate at the Beveridge Park road races. As the 150cc class was dropped in favour of a new 200cc Scottish class, the bike was converted to a 125cc and run in that event.
The ‘Bruce Special’ was sold by Charlie Bruce to William McBirnie, one of his friends in the Avon Valley motorcycle club. The bike was road registered in 1952, but William continued to enter races at Errol. The bike was then sold to another Avon Valley member, John Miller who used it on the road until 1958, the last time that it ran. In recent years this bike was located and purchased by Ian Whitehead & George Corner.
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