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/683145
CN III ARCHIVES BY LARRY LAWRENCE I n the mid-1950s a small group of Texas hot-rodders built a streamliner, stuffed a Triumph Thunderbird motor into the cre- ation and set off to the Bonneville Salt Flats. The shoe-string effort eventually resulted in two motor- cycle land speed records, set up a battle with a German motor- cycle manufacturer and inspired Triumph to name one of its new motorcycles in honor of the effort. The Texas team, headed by builders Jack Wilson (a service manager for Dalio's Triumph in Ft. Worth) and Stormy Mang- ham (an airline pilot) with veteran AMA racer and former Texas State Champion Johnny Allen handling the riding, ran into con- troversy along the way, but in spite of pushback by the international sanctioning body {the FIM), the Triumph land speed bike, nicknamed the "Texas Ceegar" (aka The Ft. Worth Flash), became part of Bonneville lore and forever an integral part of the history of Triumph motorcycles. German maker NSU established the first post- World War II motorcycle land speed record in 1951 with road racer Wilhelm Herz going 180.29 mph on the Autobahn. That set off a land speed record battle that raged through the mid-1950s. The NSU record held for four years until Russell Wright went 184.83 mph aboard a Vincent-HRD in New Zealand. And then the Texas group with Johnny Allen riding went 193.730 at Bonneville. This did not sit well with the Germans and after much wind-tunnel work the NSU came to Bonnev- ille in '56 where Herz became the first man to ride a motorcycle at over 200 mph, with a run of 211.4 mph. The Texas team was back in Bonneville in 1956 with a revamped streamliner, taking direct aim at the NSU factory record. Allen turned in a two-way average of 214.4 mph. However, the FIM, citing concerns with the clock certificates, refused to ratify the new record. The AMA officially recognized the record, however, and that was good enough for Triumph's Ed Turner. Turner decreed that every Triumph leaving the factory would proudly be stamped "World Motorcycle Speed Record Holder." Turner did this in the face of threats from the FIM, which he defiantly ignored. Allen's record set off a massive advertising campaign by Triumph and eventually lead the launch of the Triumph Bonneville, named in honor of the land speed record, in 1959. There were possibly a number of political underpinnings behind the FIM's decision. At the time the AMA was not affiliated with the FIM, much to the chagrin of the international body. It THE TEXAS CEEGAR P122