And get Van Morrison to do the sound track.Originally Posted by Paul in NZ
Nothing you don't already know and that photo (that his daughter scanned and sent me) was the high point.
I have a thumbnail video of the run too, but that's all it is by today standards - a thumbnail.
And yeah - Even in writing they seemed like nice folks.
I can find a draft copy. It lead into a New Bonne article.
In 1956 Jack Wilson of 'Big D Cycles' in Dallas, Texas took a Thunderbird engine and a can of nitro-methane rocket fuel and 'started thinking about world records'.
Jack and his partner 'Stormy' Mangham shoehorned that engine and special chassis into an old aircraft drop tank and created a sensational looking machine designed to do just one thing - to go as fast as the Thunderbird engine would propel it across Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats
The rider was Texas Racer Johnny Allen and he covered the measured mile at 214 miles per hour (344kph). An amazing speed for 1956 and though this was 10mph faster than the current record of a supercharged NSU it was not recognised by motorcycling's international body - FIM as a world mark. Reportedly because only one pass was made - not the required 'return' run, or because no FIM official was present, or both. It was recognised as a North American record only, but it 'captured public imagination' world-wide
The record was set on a Triumph in September 1962 when Bill Johnston took another streamliner both ways through the Bonneville speed traps at 224mph (361.4kph) to make the official FIM speed record. The bike attracted huge crowds when put on display at the Earls Court Motorcycle show, It weighed 180kg (379lb), was over 5 metres (16'3") long and had a wheelbase of 240cm (94.5in). The Engine and transmission were behind the rider, who had to lay on his back in a device a little higher than a mans knee. The engine ran on Methanol and had a compression ratio of 11:1. It had a single, small, drum rear brake.
Triumphs exploits at Bonneville didn't end there. In 1966 Bob Lappan flew the Triumph flag even higher. Posting 245.6mph (395.24kph) in his twin Thunderbird engined Gyronaut X-1. Again this was not recognised as a world record because the bikes capacity exceeded the 1000cc limit required for a FIM mark. Leppan and his engineer Joe Blutfodt were big Triumph Dealers in Detroit. They later built a three engined version whose suspension collapsed at about 270mph (434kph).
The Bonneville Salt Flats were Triumph territory and the company made the most of its successes. So when a twin carburettor version of the 650 twin was introduced in 1959 - nobody had any difficulty in coming up for a name for it - the Triumph Bonneville was born, it stayed around for over 20 years, will always be one of the great names in motorcycling and is now in production again.
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