CN
III ARCHIVES
BY LARRY LAWRENCE
D
on Vesco will surely be
remembered as one
of the greatest land-speed
record (LSR) racers in his-
tory. Not only did Vesco
become the first rider to
break the seemingly impos-
sible 250-mph mark in 1970,
he returned five years later
and was the first to pass the
mythic 300-mph barrier. No
other rider came close to
Vesco in terms of upping the
ante on the motorcycle side of
LSR attempts.
In land-speed record competi-
tion, the increments of 50 miles
per hour are seen as major mile-
stones. There was the 150-mph
barrier set way back in 1930 by
Joseph S. Wright riding a super-
charged Zenith-JAP motorcycle
on a long stretch of concrete
highway in Cork, Ireland. That
was set during a period when
motorcycle land-speed attempts
were at an all-time peak, and the
record was being broken some-
times two or three times a year.
With the outbreak of World War II
motorcycle land-speed attempts
went dormant. Then in the 1950s,
as the world was largely at peace
and the economy was humming,
activity picked up again.
P116
CHASING
250
tional 50 miles would be consid-
erably higher. Keeping in mind
the NSU that broke 200 mph,
was a just a 500cc two-cylinder,
four-stroke. The secret to the
machine's power was a unique
rotating supercharger.
Over the next 10 years af-
ter Herz' 1956 NSU record of
210.64 mph, the record inched
up. Just a month after the NSU
record, Johnny Allen, at the
controls of the "Texas Ceegar," a
Triumph-powered, 650cc twin, a
methanol-fueled motorcycle with
It was 26 years after Wright set
that 150-mph mark in 1930 when
the 200-mph barrier was finally
conquered on the Bonneville Salt
Flats by a German named Wil-
helm Herz on the NSU Delphin III
streamliner.
Getting to 200 mph was indeed
an impressive accomplishment,
and it took a streamliner to do it.
So much of what could be done
in terms of aerodynamics had
been done. To get to that next
milestone, 250 mph, not only
would a designer need to further
refine the aerodynamics of their
machine to a point beyond the
exceptional work done by NSU in
the '50s, the horsepower num-
bers required to get that addi-
Don Vesco working on his record-
breaking Yamaha-powered
streamliner nicknamed "Big Red,"
which he rode to become the first
motorcycle racer to reach 250
miles per hour.
(Above) Don Vesco readies for
a run with his wife Norma and
their dog wishing him luck.
