FEATURE
TRIUMPH INFOR ROCKET STREAMLINER
P94
Martin will be competing with
Robinson as well as with fast
lady Valerie Thomson, riding
the former record-holding
motorcycle, Denis Manning's
BUB Seven, for the accolade
of not only setting a new
absolute motorcycle LSR/Land
Speed Record, but in doing so
to also become the first person
to officially ride a motorcycle at
more than 400 mph.
A fourth contender should
have been the late Sam
Wheeler, but the 72-year old
Bonneville legend was sadly
killed after crashing his EZ-
Hook streamliner on the Salt
on July 25—a tragedy which
underlines the dangers entailed
in the pursuit of speed.
BREAKING RECORDS
A
s a Triumph rider whose
name is already to be
found in the FIM's list of
current World Land Speed
Record holders thanks to
Matt Capri's South Bay Tri-
umphs, both turbocharged
and naturally aspirated (see
http://www.fim-live.com/
en/sport/sport/world-
records-attempts), I was
honored with an exclusive
guided tour of the Triumph
Rocket Streamliner by its
creator, Matt Markstaller.
After spending the previous
four days out on the Salt
Flats alongside the bike
while pursuing records my-
self with the 1700cc South
Bay Triumph Thunderbird,
the chance to closely exam-
ine the Streamliner came
by visiting the Triumph LSR
team's workshop. This was
located 10 miles from the
Bonneville Salt Flats at the
former Wendover, Utah,
USAF airbase that was
used as a training HQ for
the B-29 bombers, which,
in 1945 dropped the Hiro-
shima and Nagasaki atomic
bombs. The Enola Gay
Hangar in which the team
was based had been the
home of the actual airplane
that made that fateful run to
Hiroshima seven decades
earlier.
Markstallear spared no
details in describing how
he and his crew at Hot Rod
Conspiracy had created the
fabulously sleek Triumph
Streamliner. By day, Matt
manages the test and R&D
department at Portland's
Freightliner Trucks fac-
tory, Daimler-Benz's North
American truck subsidiary,
but by night he orches-
trates the work of the most
creative automotive design
specialists in the USA's
Pacific Northwest. Hot
Rod Conspiracy's activities
range from building award-
winning high performance
custom vehicles, whether
motorcycles, cars, trucks
or boats (often going speed
record racing with the re-
sult), to developing aerody-
namic solutions to improve
vehicle speed, handling
and fuel efficiency. Matt
Markstaller's engineering
expertise honed over the
past 25 years has resulted
in a huge array of diverse
creations that even includes
furniture and homes, as
well as vehicles. Let's leave
it to Matt to explain the
genesis of the 1000 bhp
twin-engined, six-cylinder
motorcycle with which Guy
Martin is currently attempt-
ing to set a new outright
LSR on the Bonneville
Salt Flats.
Matt Markstaller
has his own
records to his
name, now he
wants the big
one.
Guy Martin has gone from TT
racer to the biggest motorsport
personality in England since Barry
Sheene. Should he claim the
record, he'll be even more famous.
