The Beauty and the Beast

By Mal Thompson

Introduction by Vincenzo Murphy

The Texas Vincent history of Mal Thompson and his brother Jim is well known and has been immortalized in the book The Vincent in the Barn. Along with being a fighter pilot and a winning Vincent drag race expert, Mal was a decent writer and put his Vincent history on 23 typed pages, a short section of which is quoted in the book. Mal won over 300 drag racing trophies with his Vincent in the 1950’s, with a best time of 8.5 seconds at 145 in the quarter mile.

In 1997 my brother Marcello was 22 years old and riding a Norton Commando café racer. Mal was attending the annual Austin Roadrunners motorcycle show at Ski Shores that year, where he and my brother met. Mal was impressed with this very young fellow riding a Norton and sent him a copy of his full 23-page two-part story.

Mal was an artist, as well as a maker of parts for vintage motorcycles. Lone Star Dave Rosenfield and his wife Mary Ann were friends of Mal. At Mary Ann’s suggestion, Mal casted a few sets of a cloven hoof side stand extenders, an original set of which is on Dave’s Rapide, Prieto. I have also casted a copy of the cloven hoof which is seen in the photo below next to Mal’s business card.

Mal passed away in 2005.