Anyone know what if any is the land speed record for a sidecar?
Yes! Here is the news report:
World Sidecar Land Speed Record Broken
New Zealander Glenn Hayward, driving a 1000 c.c. machine dubbed the Flying Kiwi, shattered the 19-year-old world speed record for motorcycle and sidecar on Tuesday, July 17th 2005, over a stretch of highway on New Zealand’s South Island. Riding with a 60 kg weight in the sidecar, Hayward reached a two-run average of 272 kph (170 mph), eclipsing the previous record of 222 kph (139 mph).
Covering 100 meters every 1.3 seconds is traveling at quite a pace - a world record pace in fact for a couple of serious motorcycle enthusiasts from New Zealand’s South Island who have created the fastest bike with a sidecar ever built. Glenn Hayward and Phil Garret took their ‘Flying Kiwi’ to a teeth- chattering 272 kilometers per hour (170 miles per hour) along an ordinary stretch of open road - minus the traffic of course. Tuesday’s record breaking run was supposed to have been just practice, but conditions became good enough for Hayward to open the throttle as far as it would go.
It’s taken three and-a-half years and around US$ 140-thousand of investment to overtake the previous record of 222 kph (139 mph), set back in 1986... and the initial reaction was one of relief rather than elation. Phil Garret, the team leader, also broke the old record with a run averaging 264 kph, but had to concede that his teammate was the quickest.
But the record attempts don’t stop here. Garret wants to take the Flying Kiwi to Australia - or even the salt flats of Utah, to see what the machine can really do.
MMM argues that this isn’t really a true test of speed until they reach 205 on the Flood Run
Dave
If you go to the scta web page (I forgot it just now) they have many different classes for different size sidecar rigs at Bonneville. SCTA is Southern California Timing Association (I think).
Regds,
Jim
http://www.scta-bni.org/Bonneville/records/BNIrecs_bikes.htm will give you the most current Bonneville speeds. Anything with an SC body class is a sidecar bike. SCS is streamlined sidecar.
