THE world's most recognised motorcycle brand has a car nut at the wheel.

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Harley-Davidson Australia and New Zealand managing director John Shingleton, 60, formerly of London, loves to race his Porsche and doesn't even have a bike licence.

Shingleton studied geography at Reading University, but went straight into the motor trade in 1968 with British Leyland, or BMC in those days.

"Because I was crazy about cars," he said.

"I bought a copy of a motorsport magazine and soon after I saw cars racing at Crystal Palace and I was hooked."

He worked in product planning and moved to Australia to work for Ford in 1977.

Shingleton was also the boss of Jaguar, Land Rover and Peugeot importers for several years and retired in 2001 at the age of 55.

He has since been wooed by Rolls-Royce and Harley-Davidson to set up a wholly owned subsidiary company in Australia.

"I chose Harley because it was different, a challenge, something I hadn't done before; and it is one of the world's great brands," he said.

Shingleton held a British bike licence for 30 years, but let it lapse and is considering re-applying.

Last month he took over distribution of Harley-Davidson bikes from three Australian importers after about three years of negotiation.

The bikes were previously imported by Morgan and Wacker in Queensland, New Zealand and New Caledonia, Peter Stevens group in Victoria, Northern Territory, South Australia and Tasmania, and Frasers in NSW and Western Australia.

"Harley felt that three distributors was inefficient and wanted to grow business.

"The business had expanded but not as fast as elsewhere and we felt it had more potential.

"There was no national cohesion in marketing and distribution. It's not the most cost-effective way of running a business. They even had different prices for some years and different parts prices until we took over in August."

He said that since then, parts prices had been reduced by up to 25 per cent.

Shingleton predicts sales in Australia and New Zealand will be about 6000 this year and 8000 in the next three to four years, compared with 3000 just three years ago.

"Prices have been static for three or four years so they are now more affordable. The exchange rate has been quite favourable for prices," he said.

"You can never say you can hold prices but we are increasing quality."

Shingleton said they were putting a lot of effort into improving the quality, not quantity of its dealer network.

Since it took over, four dealers have left and been replaced by two.