Be proud - Britain's only motor manufacturer going for the motorcycle world speed record
Triumph – the last truly British motor manufacturer – is going
for the motorcycle world land speed record, currently 376.363 mph.
But this isn’t one of those jet-engined thrust-powered machines
- just aeroplanes with the landing gear down - this is a 1,000-hp
machine with one powered rear wheel.
Just like a proper motorcycle.
The Castrol Rocket is powered by two of Triumph’s 2.3litre
Rocket Three engines and has been testing at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah where Triumph once set world bike records 40 plus years ago.
It’s a collaboration with Carpenter Racing
– an American tuning outfit that’s been doing heroic things with Triumph’s Rocket
Three motorcycle.
For this project, Carpenter have bolted two of the in-line
three cylinder engines togethe, with a custom-built crank and head to keep the
overall displacement down to the 3 litre maximum allowed. There’s also a turbo-charger.
In theory the Rocket III’s 2300 cc engine could have been stroked
to come just under the limit, but Carpenter’s Bob Carpenter thought it
would be better to ‘de-stroke’ the motor and use two of them.
“It just made sense,” he said. “One huge engine would
most likely torch the bearings. With the
shorter stroke we can have higher revs with less stress. Plus the added weight of an additional engine
adds some traction which is hard to come by on the salt.”
Each engine now displaces 1485 cc's. The standard, 3.75-inch stroke was reduced to
2.4 inches. Carpenter Racing did all
engine development as well as turbo system design.
“We are easily producing over 1,000 hp (745 kW) at 9,000 rpm
at the rear wheel,” explained Carpenter. Running on methanol it produces 500 lb-ft (678
Nm) of torque.
Another major player is Matt Markstaller of Hot Rod
Conspiracy who constructed the motorcycle as well as the Kevlar bodywork. The machine is over 25 feet long, two feet
wide and three feet high.
Riding the machine is roadracer Jason DiSalvo. DiSalvo, who rides the Latus Motors Castrol
Triumph Daytona 675R in the AMA GoPro Daytona Sportbike series, has land speed
racing experience, riding a Carpenter-prepared Triumph Rocket III street bike
to an FIM record of 174.276 mph.
The current land speed record holder, “Ack Attack”, driven
by Rocky Robinson and powered by two of turbocharged Suzuki Hayabusa motors.
Triumph held land speed records from
1955 to 1970. Although the factory has
not been involved in land speed racing since then, their Bonneville model -
with a nod toward past land speed glory - has been a best-seller.
If successful, the team's efforts would once again put a
Triumph-powered motorcycle on the podium as the world fastest, a title which
the British company held for almost a quarter of a century prior to 1970.
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