Featured Land Speed Racing 2023

sandi, 111 mph is as fast as anybody needs to ever go on the street. i fell down once on a lonely country highway at 115 and didnt need to. the fast stuff should stay on the track, really.

bill warner was a nice guy apparently . he died on that machine at 200 mph on the runway there some time after the record run. i never met him.

the fast bikes at loring do 245 or 250 mph right now, zx14s and hayabusas.

people run all kinds of stuff. theres a corvette that ive watched do 264 mph, and a camaro that did 250 sonething

 

do it. depending on where you are the rules are mostly similar across america. different in britain or oz

 

https://www.loringtiming.com/

 

we ll see. the record for any unfaired triumph 650 on gasoline is 139.226. im at 135.259, but 4 more mph is hard to come by. could do it easy with a fairing, i think, but thats not the class im interested in yet.

for compatison, in 1969 the fully faired factory 650s at the isle of man did 132 at the fastest section, iirc. cant remember what its called. so the heads and cams we have available have improved since then

 

lol

cant do anything ahead of the rifer that even looks like it would have the effect of improving aerodynamics.

theyre really picky about headlamp shells and rev counter speedo position. i can only imagine someone tried to bend the rules once.

but seiously, my own self-inposed class is clear-- no fairing, no front mudguard, not tail piece, nothing that except wheekl dics and and an enclosure over the rear wheel to keep chunks out of the carbs.

this is my compettion, 139.226:



hers what im trying to beat it with, currently 135.259:

 

ive modified it for 2.5 x 17-inch drag racing slicks, on 1980 katana wheels. this lowers the bike as much as six inches from the above configuration, until the frame drag the ground:



in this configuration the whole machine weighs only 280 pounds, but the wheels still need some attention. apparantly the bearings were tight, and the frame felt squirrely above 130. so i took a look and discovered that the rear wheel was messed up.



th eadvantage of the katana wheels is that i can creep up on the gear ratios i need. but ill be changing ignition and correcting valve timing this time out, and so i want to see whether i can get back to the 135 this machine did before. if i can i will put the cast wheels back on and build narrower pipes.

if you were over here id pay all your expenses just to have you along in the pits. ive done the race meet alone, but its pretty difficult. just having another person along to hold something makes a big difference

 

ive thought about building a special with a T120 in a ninja 250 frame. this is a pretty hot BSA A65 in an 80s or 90s two-stroke spar frame.



would have to run in an altered class, but thats okay

 

we leave in a week for the land speed races in maine, usa

i have opted for a conservative attempt to go faster.

im at 135.259 on a 1965 triumph T120, and i want 140. wnt get there this time, but thats okay, as im trying to consolidate what i know.

i wanted to install th epazon electronic ignition i have waiting, to replace the prehistoric belt-driven ARD magneto. no time, so the magneto stays.

i wanted to redo the exhaust pipes. no time.

i wanted to repair the 17-inch cast 1988 katana wheels that i built to replace the heavy stock turbulence-generators. they give me a bit better sprocket choices for gearing. no time.

see the pattern?

any way, i changed the cam timeing from 109/106 lobe centers to 106/109. i thought i was running 106/109 last season, but when i took the cover off and measured, it was backwards. still, i think it did 131 like that.

the hoity-toity Q16 oxygenated fuel was a bust last year. so im back to C12, which is only 112 motor octane but gave me the highest speeds so far. i changed the gearing back to what went fastest on C12, and we'll see where we go. if i need to try the Q16, i still have three cans and the jets to match.

i run this 1970 pushrod motor to a shift change around 6800, but i push to as high as it will go on the 3-4 shift, around 8500 rpm. ive seen 9000 rpm on thjis steel crank, but there's a limit to ho many times i can do that, and ive already blown the motor once.

not done yet. still work to do.

 

https://roaddirt.tv/the-road-by-t-e-lawrence/