Big cash for rare Indian: 1936 inline-four fetches £65,550 at auction

A rare Indian Four has sold for an incredible £65,550 at auction, smashing its top estimate of £58,000.

The bike was sold by H&H at the National Motorcycle Museum as part of a sale with a collective price of almost £1m. Other strong performers included a Vincent Black Shadow (£33,350), Ducati 749R (£18,400) and Norton F1 (£36,800).

“The classic motorcycle and vintage scooter auction is always a lively event,” said Mike Davis, senior motorcycle specialist at H&H Classics. “It’s fantastic to see so many of the scooters and bikes on offer go to start their next chapters with their new owners.” 

The sale’s most valuable scooter was an extremely original 1971 Lambretta DL200 Electronic, which sold for a final price of £21,275.

An inline-four engine may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Indian Motorcycles but that is precisely the engine configuration used in the Four.

Indian bought the failing ACE marque in 1927 and sold bikes under the brand name until 1929 – when the Indian Four officially joined the range.

By the early ’30s, the model was a firm part of the Indian range and shares plenty of instantly recognisable Indian features – such as the leaf-sprung fork. Avid vehicle collector and talkshow host Jay Leno describes the Four as the ‘Cadillac of motorcycles’.

This example from 1936 has previously been restored and retains a paintjob applied in the 1980s. It comes with a current V5 and sports a 1265cc engine, complete with a raised twin-exit exhaust along its righthand side.