Mike Hailwood's 'For The Love of Sport' Replica Helmet

Mike Hailwood's  'For The Love of Sport'  Replica Helmet.

In 2002,  two decades after Mike Hailwood's fatal car crash on March 23rd 1981, The Hailwood Estate commissioned Davida UK to be the first helmet manufacturer to produce their Official Hailwood Replica helmet.

Davida were highly honoured to be the first manufacturer to recreate 'Mike The Bike's' immensely iconic 'For The Love Of Sport' Hailwood Replica Helmet between 2002 & 2004.  Although no longer available we like to think the Davida was the most faithful and elegant reproduction of Mike's helmet to date.

Keeping race track helmet art alive has been a mission of ours since 1998 when we launched the Davida Racing Series on the Davida Classic. The Series features the racing colours of 17 Champions from the 1950's & 60's.

The Davida Classic is an authentic example of the low dome racing helmet, one of the first motorcycle helmets ever manufactured in the 1950's & 60's. Made with a fibreglass shell it's sobering to think these original helmet shells were made of papier mache. 

'For The Love of Sport' was not the only racing design Hailwood wore during his incredible motorcycling career. Regardless of the bike he was riding, the Ecurie Sportive design was obviously a personal favourite too.

To ensure Davida's 'For The Love of Sport'  was an accurate replica, Davida tracked down an original Hailwood helmet from the 1950's. Like most racers of the time, Hailwood was curiously superstitious and considered it unlucky to change a helmet mid season. So as this Hailwood original shows, even if a racing incident had caused considerably damage to the helmet shell, it was just repaired and re-used until the racing season was over.

The Davida Hailwood Replica obtained the seal of approval by Steve Wynn, Sport Motorcycles, who displayed the Hailwood Replica bike at the 2002 Stafford Classic Bike Show.

Whilst searching through the archive for this piece, we found an image of a Hailwood Rep bike fitted with a Swinging Arm which Davida were manufacturing during the late 1970's.

 RIP Mike Hailwood 2nd April 1940 - 23rd March 1981