Unique Ferrari motorbike up for auction

They may provide daily transport for both Hammond and May, but motorbikes don't really feature in Top Gear's worldview. As Jeremy will tell anyone who will listen, motorbikes don't have roofs, motorbikes don't have comfy seats and, if you ride a motorbike, sooner or later, you will fly off one into a hedge and need to be reassembled. Oh, and you're obliged to dress like a Power Ranger for a quick trip to the shops.

So for a bike to worm its way onto Topgear.com, it helps to have a strong connection to a car. And this one does. It's a one-off Ferrari motorbike, officially sanctioned by Piero Ferrari in 1990, two years after his father Enzo passed away.

It was built completely from scratch by bike-maker Dave Kay. Kay had written to Ferrari to ask if he could create a motorcycle as a tribute to the late Enzo, who began his own racing career on bikes. Kay got the green light and, with a blank canvas in front of him, set about trying to imagine the type of bike Ferrari would have built had it had the time or inclination. Which we guess explains the Testarossa-style side vents.

The bike is powered by a decidedly un-Ferrari four-cylinder, 900cc engine, producing 105bhp and able to hit 60mph in under three seconds. It was finished in 1995 and has been owned for the past 17 years by a British collector who elected, very sensibly in our opinion, to keep it as an objet d'art in his drawing room at home.

It will go under the hammer at Bonham's on April 29th and, given that it's the only Ferrari motorcycle ever built, is expected to fetch a cool £100,000. For more information on the auction, click here.