Motorcycle_land-speed_record

Motorcycle land-speed record

Motorcycle land-speed record

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The motorcycle land-speed record is the fastest speed achieved by a motorcycle on land. It is standardized as the speed over a course of fixed length, averaged over two runs in opposite directions. AMA National Land Speed Records requires 2 passes the same calendar day in opposite directions over a timed mile/kilo while FIM Land Speed World Records require two passes in opposite directions to be over a timed mile/kilo completed within 2 hours.[1] These are special or modified motorcycles, distinct from the fastest production motorcycles. The first official Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM) record was set in 1920, when Gene Walker rode an Indian on Daytona Beach at 104.12 mph (167.56 km/h). Since late 2010, the Ack Attack team has held the motorcycle land speed record at 376.36 mph (605.69 km/h).

Glenn Curtiss, fastest person on earth, on his V8 motorcycle in 1907

Speed (mph) by year.

History

The first generally recognized motorcycle speed records were set unofficially by Glenn Curtiss, using aircraft engines of his own manufacture, first in 1903, when he achieved 64 mph (103 km/h) at Yonkers, New York using a V-twin, and then on January 24, 1907, on Ormond Beach, Florida, when he achieved 136.27 mph (219.31 km/h) using a V8 housed in a spindly tube chassis with direct shaft drive to the rear wheel.[2] An attempted return run was foiled when his drive shaft came loose at speed, yet he was able to wrestle the machine to a stop without injury. Curtiss's V8 motorcycle is currently in the Transportation collection of the Smithsonian Institution.

Curtiss's 1907 record was the fastest any person had ever travelled under power: the rail record stood at 131 mph (211 km/h) (electric powered); the motor car record was 127.66 mph (205.45 km/h) (steam powered); while in the air, where weight considerations made the internal combustion engine dominant, the air speed record was still held by the Wright Brothers at a mere 37.85 mph (60.91 km/h).

William A. 'Bill' Johnson, USA, Motorcycle land-speed record on 1962-09-09, Bonneville Salt Flats with Dudek Triumph Streamliner

The first officially sanctioned Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM) record was set in 1920, when Gene Walker rode an Indian on Daytona Beach at 104.12 mph (167.56 km/h). The first FIM-sanctioned record to exceed Curtiss's 1907 speed did not occur until 1930, at Arpajon in France, when an OEC special with a 1,000cc supercharged JAP V-twin engine averaged 137 mph (220 km/h) over the required two-way runs. The 1930s saw an international battle between the BMWs ridden by Ernst Henne and various JAP-powered British motorcycles, with the penultimate pre-war record being taken in 1937 by Italy's Gilera, shortly before BMW set a final pre-war record of 173.68 mph (279.51 km/h) that stood for 14 years.

After the Second World War, the German NSU factory battled Britain's Vincent HRD and Triumph for top speed honors during the 1950s, with British engined machines dominating the 1960s. New Zealand's Burt Munro (of the film The World's Fastest Indian), set a speed record at Bonneville in 1967 of 183 mph (295 km/h) for a motorcycle with an engine under 1000cc.[citation needed]

A Japanese-engined streamliner motorcycle first took the record in 1970, and alternated with Harley-Davidson-engined machines as record-holders until 1990, when Dave Campos's streamliner powered by twin Harley-Davidson engines averaged 322.15 mph (518.45 km/h). That record stood for 16 years before being surpassed in 2006 by the Ack Attack team's twin Suzuki engined machine at an average of 342.8 mph (551.7 km/h). The BUB team, using a custom-built V4 engine, then alternated as record holders with Ack Attack over the next four years. As of November 2022, the Ack Attack team has held the motorcycle land speed record at 376.36 mph (605.69 km/h) since late 2010.

Jet-engine trike

The fastest record certified by the FIM is that set in 1964 by the jet-propelled tricycle, Spirit of America. It set three absolute land speed records, the last at 526.277 miles per hour (846.961 km/h). While such records are usually validated by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, the FIA only certifies vehicles with at least four wheels, while the FIM certifies two- and three-wheelers. Breedlove never intended Spirit of America to be classified as a motorcycle, despite its tricycle layout, and only approached the FIM after being rejected for record status by the FIA. Spirit of America's FIM-ratified record prompted the FIA to add the new category of thrust-powered vehicles to its world record listings. Furthermore, most people think of the tricycle Spirit of America, now part of the permanent collection of Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry, as a car and not a motorcycle.[3]

List of AMA National and FIM World Land Speed records

Link to Bonneville Motorcycle Speed Trials AMA National and FIM World Records

List of "absolute" and Streamliner records

More information Date, Location ...

Notes

  1. [1]
    "Rules & Records". Bonneville Motorcycle Speed Trials. 23 February 2014. Archived from the original on 5 December 2020. Retrieved 2 September 2019.
  2. [2]
    Harvey (2005) p. 253
  3. [3]
    Bonneville Salt Flats by "LandSpeed" Louise Ann Noeth, MBI Publishing
  4. [4]
    House (2003) p. 31-32
  5. [5]
    House (2003) p. 41
  6. [6]
    de Cet (2002) p. 116
  7. [7]
    Murphy (2000), p.27.
  8. [8]
    Setright (1979) p. 238
  9. [9]
    Walker (1999) p. 16
  10. [10]
    Walker (2001) p. 188. "Then in 1936, BMW technicians decided to decrease the engine's displacement from 736 to 493. This might have seemed a backwards move, but there was a sound basis for this technical change. [...] The engine was a 493 cc double-overhead-cam with a bore and stroke of 66 x 72 mm, a Zoller supercharger mounted on the front of the crankshaft [...] This supercharging technology had been under development since 1929, when a production R63 model had been fitted with a positive displacement blower..."
  11. [11]
    Setright (1979) p. 238 lists this as 735 cc, not 736 cc.
  12. [12]
    Tragatsch, caption p. 304, credits this run as 256.06 with a supercharged 746 cc, while contradicting this on the same page in a table listing the displacement for the '32-'35 BMWs as 735 cc, and as 495 cc in 1936, rather than 493 cc.
  13. [13]
    Setright (1979) p. 238 has this as 495 cc.
  14. [14]
    Tragatsch (1984) p. 304
  15. [15]
    "Fantastic speeds at Utah". The Motor Cycle. 95 (2739). London: Iliffe & Sons. 6 October 1955.
  16. [16]
    Murphy (2000), p.40.
  17. [17]
    "Over 210 m.p.h.". The Motor Cycle. 97 (2782). London: Ilffe & Sons: 169. 9 August 1956.
  18. [18]
    "Allen does it". The Motor Cycle. 97 (2787). London: Iliffe & Sons: 344. 13 September 1956.
  19. [19]
    Tragatsch (1984), p.305.
  20. [20]
    "World's Fastest". Motor Cyclist Illustrated. London: City Magazines Ltd: 435. November 1962.
  21. [21]
    Clayton, Graham, The Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum[permanent dead link]. p. 46. Motorcycle Mojo Magazine
  22. [22]
    Murphy (2000), p.64.
  23. [23]
    Murphy (2000), p.98.
  24. [24]
    Madson, Bart (18 October 2006). "2006 Bonneville Streamliner Battle". Moto USA. Motorcycle USA.com. Archived from the original on 30 September 2015. Retrieved 28 August 2016.
  25. [25]
    Motorcycle.com Staff (2008)
  26. [26]
    Harley (2009)
  27. [27]
    New FIM World Record - Bonneville Raceway, Utah (USA), FIM, 4 October 2010, archived from the original on 28 February 2011

a. ^ At the time, it had been the accepted practice that the F.I.M would require the American Automobile Association to carry out official timing for any run in the USA. However shortly before the record attempt the A.A.A. had withdrawn from controlling motor sport, leaving no official body representing the F.I.M.. Although every effort had been made to show the impartiality of the officials and the accuracy of the equipment, after several months the claimed record was not accepted by the F.I.A. as the timing was "not carried out by an official certified by the F.I.M.".[1]

b. ^ The issues with official F.I.M. timing of runs in the USA were still not resolved at this time. NSU had solved the problem for their runs in August by including accredited timekeepers and officials in the team that they bought over with them from Europe. The British Motor Corporation had also been attempting record runs that year, and the F.I.A arranged for a British timekeeper to go to America for these. The equipment he had used for timing the runs was tested and approved by the F.I.A., however he had to leave America before Allen could make his run, and so the same equipment was used by two Americans who had been given written authority to act as timekeepers on behalf of the F.I.M. At the F.I.M meeting in Paris in October, the F.I.M. postponed approval of the record, alleging that the timekeeper was not recognised by the F.I.M. and that no official F.I.M. observer had been present. After further deliberation and investigation, the F.I.M. announced in April 1957 that they were unable to ratify the record claimed as the equipment used had not been approved by them.[2][1][3]

References

  1. [1]
    "More delaying action". The Motor Cycle. 97 (2800). London: Iliffe & Sons: 788. 13 December 1956.
  2. [2]
    "Bombshell in Paris". The Motor Cycle. 97 (2791). London: Iliffe & sons. 11 October 1956.
  3. [3]
    "Sorry story". The Motor Cycle. 98 (2819). London: Iliffe & sons. 25 April 1957.
Literature

See also
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