Written by Martin Hodgson
The truth is we’ve run out of superlatives to describe the motorcycle building genius that is LA’s Max Hazan. His creations are known the world over, museums count them among their most prized possessions and even the late great Anthony Bourdain spent time trying to understand what makes Max such a master of his craft. But in his latest work we get perhaps our greatest insight yet; from the vivid memories of a childhood Atlantic crossing comes the extraordinary Hazan Motorworks 1938 JAP 500.

?I have been wanting to use a JAP engine for as long as I can remember. My parents went their separate ways when I was around three years old and I grew up splitting my time 50/50 between my Mother in England and my Father in New York. During the summers in Northern England, there was a local speedway track that we went to every Thursday night we could get a ride and although JAP wasn?t being raced anymore, I got my first whiff of methanol and castor oil,? Max remembers fondly.
?There was a local speedway track that we went to every Thursday night…I got my first whiff of methanol and castor oil.?
Fast forward to 2018 and a client showed Max a picture of a 1940?s black race car he found in a book and said ?I like the feel of this,? and left the project at that. Here, finally, was Max’s chance to create a build around the legendary JAP single cylinder engine. In the early half of the 20th century just about every British manufacturer ha...