Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/125874
~ rn 51 IlGI -= .... =IlGI g g '<:l' r0'1 ...... rC'J ...... '" ~ :::l < 34 Six-engine, rotary motorcycle for Bonneville 1975 By Charles G. Proche Alt hough the Honda Haw k of Jon l\IcKibben will not be at Bo nneville Speed Week this year (Aug. 18-24), it is expected th at at least three streamliners will try to establish a new Land Speed Record. Th e standing record, set b y the late Cal Rayborn at the two-wa y average speed of 265.492 MPH riding a Harley-Davidson str eam liner four years ago , is in je op ardy. Last y ear's a ttem pts o f t he few chal lenge rs were an indi cation that t he m ain problem s had been lic ked . Prob ably only bad weather . fo llo wi ng th e - Speed Week preve nted having a new name ad ded in th e history b oo ks. T his season, American s still have it in th e bag. as no bo dy is going to challeng e Bob Summers ' LSR for wheel -drive n automobiles nor Gary Gabelich 's ti tle as th e Fastest Man o n Wheels. But ne xt year m ay be di fferen t, as a 27 -year desi gner /inventor/d river f r o m Melbourne, A ustralia named Johnny Conway , is building two vehicles with which an attempt will be made to bring the two American ultim ate land sp eed records to the Kiwi land. Conway's LSR ventures, intended to promote his Sanron ro tary engine, wh ich has been running n ow at Melboume on a test bench for more th an eight months, are backed up by his five partners with a total investm en t of $ 75 0,000. Details of this rotary engine, supp osedly better th an the curren t Wan kel, Carol and Sarich rot ari es, are still secret as U.S., Australian and Europea n p atents are p ending . Originally , it was planned to run his 3 6-e n g in e d , 16 -wheel ca r, called Australi a Mach I, th is winter a t Lake Eyre in Australia. But , as Conway told us, the dry lake is so flooded th at it m ay ta ke a ye ar for th e water to disappear. As a result of this , next year's Bonneville visitors will see h is two revolutionary - veh icles. T he Mach I car will only . ma ke several exhibition runs, as Bonneville is too short for him . The car needs 20 miles to get above the 600 MPH speed. The second vehicle whi ch will show up o n the Sa lt is a six-rotary engi ne d mo torcycle , driven by Bob Levy, a past Australian sidecar champion. He h op es to beat Rayborn's r eco rd , as the Sanron is built to be capable of t raveling at 3 50 MPH. Prototype co nstru cti on was star ted several months ago in Melbourne. The 650 pound and ll-foot long bike has six engines - in three pairs' - the front driving superchargers and the other four driving hydrostatic transmissions wh ich feed oil to "motors" (pa te n ted) in both the front and rear wheels. The transmission is used in reverse function to provide braking. Front and rear suspension is conventional. The rider lies down in a custom-formed foam capsule with a strong rollcage surrounding him. Two skids swing out to prevent the bike from toppling at low speeds. A periscope is used to provide fo rwa rd vision . This greatly reduces frontal are a an d hence wind drag. The shell con tin ues un de rneath the bike, with o nly absolute minimum cutouts fo r the two ti res . Sma ll fuel tanks are molde d to the inside of the fiberglass shell . Each superch arged rot ary . four-stroke, valveless, 152 cubic inch engine develops 410 HP at 14,000 RPM; e Ie c t ron i c injection, electronicallycontrolled ignition and water cooling is used. The engines run on niyomethane. A ustralians are banking three-q uarter-million dollars on a 36-e ngine , l ti-uihcel car and th is 6-engine , 2-wh eel streamliner in hop es of capturing the Land Sp eed R ecords f rom t he U.S.A. R ider p osition leaves no room for body English. en J> Z :a o z l> c C/) -; :IJ l> r p