About Us

Here is some general background on my involvement with motorcycles:

Back in the dark ages early Sixties, I bought my first big bike, a BSA Super Rocket. I raced everywhere, from my home in New York to Mexico City (where I won the National Drag Championship). Competing at 8000 feet altitude provided quite a challenge. After that, I obtained a wrecked Triumph Bonneville, rebuilt it, and raced quite successfully. During the summer of 1965, I won numerous trophies with that bike, some days competing in four different classes.

I graduated from University of Oklahoma in 1967 and then joined BMW as a marketing manager. Due to my racing experience, they eventually asked me to help with their roadracing efforts. I built racing engines, specializing in camshaft development, which led to our winning the 1976 Super Bike Championships.

I purchased the BMW accessory division in 1985, allowing me to more fully develop all the high performance parts, which I then marketed under my Luftmeister brand. I participated in our initial turbocharger technology initiative, which resulted in our competing in many top speed events, ultimately yielding 7 land speed records, including the current record of over 206 mph at El Mirage Dry Lakes in 1994.

I purchased my Triumph franchise in 1995, and short thereafter attained a speed run at over 200 mph with a Daytona 1200. During this time, I also set the first Triumph Stock Production record of 174 mph with a Daytona 955 in 1998.

I am now specializing in high performance parts development for Triumph. I am building 3 different bikes to run at Bonneville in early September. One will be my personal bike (The Mirage 1147 cc), one for Triumph UK/US team, and one for the Hein Gericke French team. These bikes are based on the Bonneville twin engine and will produce around 100 RWHP, which will give us a good chance at more records. If not, there always will be next year and a new chance.

Opportunity materializes again in 2008, for the occassion I build a Turbo Bonneville, out of a wrecked 05 Bonneville 790 motor. I built a 988 stroker motor for force induction application, fuel injected, water injected with a Haltech Management System. Bike was finished at 11 PM the last day before departure. qualified on his maiden trip down the salt at a speed of 168.927, using very low boost. The record of 162.472 is a two way average in the flying mile for the 1000cc Fuel Class (no fairing used). Prior testing with more boost resulted in 232hp and 153lbs of torque. Additional runs will be made at El Mirage Dry Lakes this winter with speeds expected to exceed 200mph. Thanks to our entire staff and special thanks to Pirelli tires, Haltech Fuel Management Systems, Rich Kemph, South Bay Fabrication, Fred Hether, M/C Tire Works, Alan & Andrew Cathcart (Aka Jr), special thanks to my wife, Linda Capri, who has always supported my record runs efforts.

- Matt Capri

Dateline: Bonneville Salt Flats, Thursday, September 3, 2009 South Bay Triumph/Norton sets 5 new land speed records for the 2009 BUB Speed Trials at the Bonneville Salt Flats! Team South Bay Triumph/Norton ran a turbocharged Thruxton and set 2 FIM records and 1 AMA record. They also ran a street legal normally aspirated Thruxton and set 2 FIM records for that class. The rider for both bikes was Alan Cathcart, internationally syndicated journalist and noted roadracer. According to Alan, the turbo bike came with a steep learning curve due to the abrupt power and less than favorable conditions, i.e. wet soft salt causing poor traction. The temperatures were in the 90s and the corrected elevation was 7500’. As the week progressed, different tires were used and boost pressures raised to attain higher speeds. Matt Capri’s AMA record was raised to over 165mph average, with a best run of 171.65mph. The French team bike, ridden by Alan Cathcart, built by South Bay Triumph, and owned by Alain Miran who was unable to attend the meet, set 2 FIM records with a top speed over 152mph. All things considered, 5 records in 5 days establishes the reliability of the new Triumph and Norton motorcycles and demonstrates the expertise of Team South Bay Triumph/Norton. Thanks to team chief Matt Capri, techs Jeff York and Jerry Augusto, pit techs Roger Allen Russell and Andrew Cathcart, Carlos Schmidt of TPUSA, Linda Capri, John Perkey & Veronica Angell of South Bay Triumph. Thanks to all of our sponsors, Triumph Performance USA, Pirelli Tires, IHI Turbos, Haltech EMS by Sara & Adam from BMI USA,Triumph Twin Power, WebCam,EBC brakes, Rick Kemph Cylinder Heads, Fast Freddy HeadWorks, Techna-Fit, RK Chains, Torco Oil, MC Tireworks, Mickey Cohen Motorsports, Gene Thomason Racing, Phil Hawkins Photography (www.ishootfromthehip.com), and a special thanks to all of our loyal customers who have supported us for the last 14 years. In addition, a big hand to Stuart Garner, CEO, and Tony Squires, chief mechanic for Norton Racing. Stuart, the new owner of Norton Motorcycles, personally rode the Norton rotary race bike to a record over 173mph. Stuart was so impressed by the whole experience that he has agreed to support Matt Capri in developing 2 new Norton Commando 961’s (one with turbo and one normally aspirated) for the 2010 BUB meet. Congratulations to everyone – truly a job well done!