Ian had always admired the beautiful little Moto Guzzi V8 500 Grand Prix racer of the 1950's (built before he was born!) that was withdrawn from competition before it reached it's full potential. Coincidentally, there is an Australian connection to the Moto Guzzi V8 with Keith Campbell one of the few riders to have ridden it in competition - even today those that have seen (and heard) it race still speak of it in awe. The Moto Guzzi 500-V8 wasn't the only Italian motorcycle to influence the design of the Drysdale V8 - with the frame and fairing also influenced by the Bimota and Ducatis of the early 1980's as well as modern Moto Guzzis. Ian has always admired the passion with which the Italians build their machines and respected the efficient reliability of the modern Japanese motorcycle . His aim was to combine these elements and build something that is beautiful, unique and extremely fast.

The 750-V8 started out as an engine-only project when Ian was approached by two people (unbeknown to each other) in the space of 2 weeks to design a motor for sidecar roadracing. If a 17,000 rpm V8 isn't frightening enough - the initial design Ian proposed was a 1100cc vee twin 2 stroke with a projected 120 kW from an engine weighing just 40 kg - but the thought of such an engine fitted to a road going motorcycle was too frightening to contemplate. It became obvious that a four stroke was more desirable if development costs were to be recovered by selling the engine for road bike use as well.

As work progressed on the engine it became obvious that it was necessary to design the complete motorcycle concurrently as everything was going to be a tight squeeze with twice as many of most parts to fit into the same space. The compact, jewel like' engine that emerged guaranteed that production of a complete motorcycle must be the first priority.