50 Years at Bonneville - Scott Guthrie Remembers

[Old-N-Slow]

50 Years at Bonneville
Scott Guthrie Remembers


Chapter #30A

The Nightmare continues


As I finally better understood the increasing complexity and cost of building a turbocharged and fuel injected Harley, I realized that the development of the 1957 Sportster engine was about as far along as I was willing take it.  The costs in time and treasure looked to be pretty formidable!

Turbocharging the Harley would involve a special ignition, which my sponsor Bomar Magneto and I had partially developed.  Mechanical fuel injection with port injection would be required.  I felt I had designed an even-stronger crankshaft to handle the additional power.  In order to ?save? the crankshaft, it would be carefully assembled, balanced and aligned.  It would then be WELDED together.  That would make it a single use item.  Expensive to build and even more expensive to replace. 

Could I even afford a spare ?

Cams would also require attention.

 
Photo - The Harley Sportster uses a traditional Harley design from the 1920?s for the cam timing and cam drive:  EACH valve is operated by a SEPARATE cam shaft. (Imagine a small-block Chevy with 16 separate cam shafts !) Individual Harley cam lobes are available for EACH cam. (Bottom of Photo) These individual lobes must be installed on the bare shaft, put in time, and welded in place.

Can you IMAGINE using a degree wheel to install 16 separate lobes for that small-block Chevy ?  IF a cam twists lengthwise at red-line, do you have to compensate for each lobe at idle, and advance it to compensate, and THEN weld it in place?

 
Photo ? complicated to ?tune,? triple valve springs were very effective in controlling the movement of the huge valves in the Harley.  To prevent the pistons hitting the valves if there was ?valve float,? I had to shim EACH of the twelve (total for 4 valves) separately.  Selection of different strengths for each of the 3 springs complicated matters.  Stunningly short valve stems made valve guide sizing critical, and resulting greater wear a problem for maintenance.  EACH spring was shimmed differently from all the others.  HUGE seat pressures meant more valve and valve seat wear items to watch.  This was before ?beehive? or ?progressive? valve springs were available to me.  I hoped that one of the benefits of three springs was that they never had the same harmonic ? leading to ?surge.?  The springs rubbing each other might have helped with surge too.  It just never ends !

 

Photo - In the primitive 1970?s, simple privateers like me had essentially no way to ?visualize? what was happening in the valve train at high RPM?s.  There was a machine called a SPINTRON which was like a reverse dyno.  A powerful electric motor spun the engine, and a high-speed camera could record events.  With a timed stroboscopic light, one could actually see the valves open and closing and determine if negative things like coil-bind or spring-surge were happening.  Without access to such a machine ? and there were few outside the manufacturers shops ? one had to either trust one?s own judgement, or that of someone who had already done the testing.

My Harley application was pretty special:  HIGH lift, LONG duration, FAST opening and HUGE spring pressure for up to five miles at a shot.  Considering a return run at Bonneville, that would be minimum ten miles between opportunities to service the engine.

Harleys ran places like Daytona, but the high-speed?blasts were measured in seconds, rather than minutes.  If one were to run the Daytona track only on the 2.5 mile speedway (and they used to do this for qualifying), than imagine doing four laps at full throttle, three of them at absolute top speed.

 
Photo ? With a Spintron, one could put a number on things like ?loft? and ?bounce.  Push rod flex and lifter deflection could be evaluated.  Probably better than just looking at the pushrod for signs of wear in the wrong places. If I cut open a pair of rocker boxes, I might be able ? with the Spintron ? to evaluate rocker flex.  The rocker being the only valve train component in bending stress. Laser tracking can cut through the hot fog of vaporized oil.  NASCAR folks have things finely tuned enough to accommodate SIX valve-closing bounces as the metal of the valve flexes and relaxes.


Not every supplier felt comfortable guaranteeing their products for Bonneville - that king of ?serial abuse,? and many had no idea of how their products measured up, since they had no access to a SPINTRON.

More faith-based stuff !


Turbo cams, waste gate, fuel injection, ignition controls, timing pull-backs, manifolds volumes, blow off valves, timing exhaust pulses, boost referenced fuel pumps and injection curves would be quite a challenge in this ?pre-digital? era.  I had no idea what a boost-referenced fuel pressure regulator even was !  Intercooling ?  NOT a clue !

WHAT was I going to do ?

[Old-N-Slow]

50 Years at Bonneville
Scott Guthrie Remembers


Chapter #30B

With the feet of an Elephant.

 
Photo - Cyril Huze Blog.  Hiro Koiso Proves a point.  Hiro running without fairing shows all the stuff hanging out.  Bike is low, long and heavy, so good traction with minimum wind resistance.  Air-to-air intercooler provides intake plenum volume.  Koiso wonders if his 230.538mph may be the fastest ?naked? Harley speed at Bonneville.  I think overall it?s Jason McVicar @ 235.596 on a SCOTT GUTHRIE RACING Hayabusa.  Hiro has been running Harleys at Bonneville for 10 years, largely under the radar.  Naked speeds on pavement are now over 265mph with Shane Stubbs riding turbo Hayabusa power.
 
Photo -  Hiro Koiso Proves another point. Same bike, but with serious ?partial? streamlining.  Fastest sit-on Harley in the world slammed down a top speed over 260mph using a centrifugal blower, not a turbo.  A 30mph increase in speed with just a fairing change is BIG;  10-15 mph is more typical. In the 1970?s, this would have been forced to run in the full-streamliner class, if allowed to run at all.  In a full streamliner body, Koiso?s power plant is probably capable of over 360mph. In 1964, this bike and rider could have been the ultimate world record holders. 

Watching Hiro Koiso run down the salt at over 260mph, with the big Harley heart thumping it?s slow, long stroke beat, I was reminded of watching my hero, Warner Riley do the same thing in the 1970?s.  Many of the big-inch Nitro Harleys had strokes between 4.5 and 5.0 inches.  The piston speed ? and piston accelerations ? of those 1970?s pistons called for LOW RPM ? something in the 5,000 to 6,000 rpm range.

I started wondering just how many times did a cylinder fire in the rotation of the rear wheel ? including tire slippage.  Every time I raced down the salt, I was struck that the firing of my big slow engine was like an elephant stamping it?s feet inches below me.  I could almost feel EVERY power pulse.

 
Photo - NOOT photo??Skinny Warner Riley with skinny tires on skinny V-twin bike for Bonneville................the contact patch in the back MAY have been 1.5 inches wide and smaller than the palm of your hand to transmit Warner?s 200+ hp, and Bob George?s 300HP??High ground clearance and short wheelbase were fashionable in the 1960?s and 70?s??200mph nitro racer has CHROME kickstand.  VERY useful at Bonneville with nothing to lean the bike against after a run.  Another build with a ?fanny? problem.  Note fancy number plate.  Also note the shape of Riley?s unpadded leathers behind his helmet- it?s almost like the wind WANTS a ?back protector? there??..The longer Warner raced at Bonneville, the lighter in color his leathers became.  Was the heat of the desert sun a factor?


One afternoon, when the course was momentarily shut down for folks to hunt for ?lost parts,? I attached myself to one of the track service crews.  Maybe by luck, Warner Riley had just made a BIG run ? way over 200 mph on his slow-turning Harley nitro engine.  I thought I could predict where on the track Warner would run,  and I found his tire track on the slightly-soft racing surface. 

There was the sign of a power pulse ! Then many inches of smooth track, and then ANOTHER power pulse ? enough to leave a little ?pile? of salt behind the pulse.  With each engine power pulse, the tire slipped.  Warner too, could feel every time the engine fired !

Does that happen with V-8 cars? 

Once again, when I thought about Bonneville,
I discovered that I knew less than I thought??.



?Funny??..It?s like the back of the bike wants to steer itself ??



For me, tires would turn out to be the final, and total, obstacle.  Even if I could make the additional power, finding a choice of motorcycle tyres to handle the increased speed was limited.

In early 1977, I had Buchannan?s Frame shop in the LA area build me that special wheel to fit the classic 5.00 x 15 Firestone ?Roadster Front? Bonneville tyre.  That setup was absolutely able to handle the prospective speed, and certainly the horsepower. The front tyre choice was limited to only the narrow Goodyear LSR tyres, which did not inspire confidence. 


 
Photo - I had tried the ?roadster? tire at Bonneville in 1977, but the handling was not good with my chassis.  I would have to run the skinny 3.00-19 Goodyear front and rear tires??

 
Phot - Designed for about 300 to 400 mph, the Firestone Bonneville tires had a ?depressed? area in the center of the tread when not aired up.  Firestone instructed that by only 200 mph, this low area would become flat.  The area would ?peak? near top speed.  I was never able to GET to 200 mph, so I had this ?hollow? in the center of the tire, and the back of the bike wanted to ?walk? from one side to the other over 150mph.  Unnerving !

One of the problems was that I was afraid to run the recommended high air pressures in the tire because I was apprehensive about ?pushing? the inner tube out through the spoke holes.  Consequently, I could never run enough tire pressure to get the ?dent? in the center of the tread to bulge out like a normal bike tire. Bad handling resulted from the tire making the bike want to ?swap directions? randomly.  If I had that little control of the back end of the bike, how would I maintain control at REAL speed?  Distracting??

PHOTOS:  In the original articles, lovingly published by Wendy at the BONNEVILLE RACING NEWS, there were PICTURES !...It is a little too cumbersome for me with my 75 year old pre digital brain to post those here since it involves photobucket and things like that.  IF you go to my facebook account, the pictures are attached to THAT version of these articles..........https://www.facebook.com/scott.guthrie.3154.........

[Old-N-Slow]

50 Years at Bonneville
Scott Guthrie Remembers

Chapter #31


Brian Eriksen?s fabulous year ? five
(5) records in ONE speed week !

?Don?t look Back?  Bob Dylan[/b]


 
Photo - Don?t look Back ! You might see 50 wasted years at Bonneville!  Scott inspects his turbo Hayabusa ?The Hammer? before Shane Stubbs 265mph run at the Loring airfield in 2010-E Don Smith photo


 

Photo - Kenny McGuire Photo. DON?T LOOK BACK !  Brian Eriksen, about to be started into the misty dawn by Bob Higbie, came all the way from New Jersey, more than well prepared. In five days of racing, Brian set five records ? one every day ? on his humble Yamaha RD350 street bike!  Brian became the first competitor on bikes 350cc or bigger to claim that crown. In less than 2 years, Brian broke records held by Ralph Hudson, Don Vesco, Tony Nicosia and Ron Grant ? all the other racers on factory full 500cc race bikes.  Special helmet modified by BELL allowed low head position.  I would steal this trick in the 1980?s.  160 mph on a modified Yamaha RD350 is a HUGE accomplishment, and the record still stands 40+ years later!

Brian Eriksen had been attending Bonneville for years.  As with some racers, he had a ?break through? moment.  The previous year he ran 160mph on a VERY humble Yamaha RD350 with good aero and a few race parts.  All powered by Brian?s BIG brain.  Eriksen?s efforts were quite sly.  Brian already dominated the 350cc class, and was even faster than Yamaha dealer and factory-rider Don Vesco.  To avoid breaking his own records, Brian installed a 0.020 inch stroker crank in his 350cc engine, and moved to the 500cc class ? which was surprisingly easier for records. This bike set eventually 15 Bonneville records.



 
Photo ? Insouciant Brian Eriksen behind the 1978 version of his Yamaha RD350.  Bike currently in a museum, in as-raced condition, 50 years later.  Forks turned down with a lathe, impossibly skinny front tire, panel blocking excess air from entering the labyrinth of the fairing.  The small model airplane prop on the nose raised eyebrows in inspection and on the start line, where Bib Higbie gave it a smile.  There was discussion that the free-wheeling prop - spun by the passing air ? ?smoothed? the air over the fairing.  It might have distracted inspectors from something else.  Brian?s authoritative irreverence was inspiring to a whole generation of Bonneville competitors. Eriksen had almost as many tricks as Don Vesco. With today?s permissive rules about aerodynamics, this bike might have run 170mph on gas station hi-test! Brian Eriksen Photo. 


Brian set his five (except for an administrative problem on the last morning? could have been six) records in the 500cc class with a 352cc bike, beating past and future star RALPH HUDSON, Suzuki factory rider Ron Grant, Yamaha star Don Vesco and Kawasaki factory rider Tony Nicosia.  The defeated Grant and Nicosia rode full-on full 500cc factory racers.

 
Photo -  Ralph Hudson 500cc Suzuki TR500 factory road racer, 2-stroke twin Ralph has always been fast ? Pavement, Bonneville, Bolivia, Australia wherever.

 
Photo - DragBike.com  Tony Nicosia at Bonneville in 1970 aboard Kawasaki H1R serial number 1.  In those days, Bonneville was still important to manufacturers to ?prove? new designs to the buying public.  Tony worked for the importer of Kawasaki motorcycles, and was a ?factory racer? who mostly specialized in drag racing.  Bonneville was not a far reach for his skills, and he set SCTA/AMA records with this Kawasaki H1R 3 cylinder 2-stroke Grand Prix race-only bike. This bike was carefully set up for Bonneville; lacking a front brake and fit with a tiny gas tank.  The Bonneville exposure was important enough to the factory that Nicosia was assigned a bike with serial number 0001. Tony is facing southwest, so might be a record return run, you can see salt from the front tire on the exhaust pipes, but almost none on the tires.  Was the salt THAT hard?  Notice sneakers.

Some of Eriksen?s secret to success was finding the absolute least possible rolling resistance, perfect engine and drive-chain alignment and the maximum wind-cheating ?slippery? profile.  This  included wiping down his racing leathers with Armor-All, waxing his bike?s exterior with aviation wax and a custom-built Bell helmet that raised the forward-viewing capability to allow a lower at-speed head position.

Eriksen?s best records still stand, 40 years later.

PHOTOS:  In the original articles, lovingly published by Wendy at the BONNEVILLE RACING NEWS, there were PICTURES !...It is a little too cumbersome for me with my 75 year old pre digital brain to post those here since it involves photobucket and things like that.  IF you go to my facebook account, the pictures are attached to THAT version of these articles..........https://www.facebook.com/scott.guthrie.3154.........

[Old-N-Slow]

50 Years at Bonneville
Scott Guthrie Remembers

Chapter #32

Time to retire.

Warner Riley, 212 mph (In 1970!) Harley rider from the Chicago area, was advertising in the SCTA bulletin to SELL a pair of NEW Goodyear LSR Motorcycle tires. 

Always short of cash, I felt I had to sell my pair of Firestone car LSR tires in order to buy the Goodyear LSR tires.  I worried about that.

Riley, a long time Bonneville 200mph Club member, sent me his only remaining set of the elusive LSR motorcycle tires; one front, one rear.  NEW !  Possibly among the last LSR motorcycle tires to leave Akron !  These tires were manufactured in 1974, so for the summer of 1978, they would be officially 4 years old???..

I immediately invested in special custom-cast aluminum wheels ? at great cost ? to fit the Goodyears.

 
Photo - Scott Guthrie 1978 Drawing. New fairing for single engine turbo Harley.  Centers of gravity were estimated. Lower profile, with tank in the seat, better aero behind the rider, more teardrop shape.  Seat design much like what Eric Buell and I would use in the 1980?s, and would be adapted by Charlie Toy in the 1980?s and 1990?s.  Ellen Guthrie used entry number 5 in 1976, and I wanted to keep that number.  Harley national champion and factory racer ROGER REIMAN claimed AMA #5 for his post-championship ?permanent? number (Only former champions  of the AMA could choose a single-digit number other than #1).  Roger had helped me a LOT in the early 1970?s and I wanted to honor his help with #5 at Bonneville.  Roger designed his own ?typeface? for his #5, so I did the same.  Repeats of #5 (top left) allowed several class changes, so I was prepared to have the ?double nickel,? the ?triple nickel? and the ?Quadruple Nickle? racing number.   Notice how much this 1978 design looks like Hiro Kioso?s 2018 bike.  The AIR hasn?t changed.


Tires ! It?s always the damm tires !

Although Goodyear had no such policy, the AMA demanded that tires ?declined? in safe speed capability by 25 mph per year after manufacture.  Storage, use and visual condition was not a factor, so I would not be able to use that rumored Burt Munro trick of hiding the sidewall cracks with black shoe polish.

Originally, these skinny new Goodyear LSR tires were rated for 300 mph. FAR in excess of my needs.  The SCTA ? bowing to the AMA (American Motorcycle Association) - who administered the SCTA?s motorcycle program - quickly informed me these BRAND NEW tires were unacceptable. 

The 25 mph annual ?depreciation? made things difficult for every fast motorcycle racer.  The Rule Book wording said that ONLY LSR tires could be used in excess of 200mph.  Since there were exactly ZERO other motorcycle tires fitting this description, that meant that NOBODY would be allowed to exceed 200 mph on bike tires ? streamliners included !  That is an odd sort of ?bracket racing? situation for a contest that is supposed to reward ultimate high speed.

This lead to an interesting telephone conversation.

Regardless of my future speeds, my consuming goal was to join the Bonneville 200 Miles Per Hour Club, specifically on gas.  In the 1970?s on a single-engine gas normally-aspired motorcycle, this was quite hard to do. I appealed the tire rule to the top of the AMA, and the conversation went something like this:

Scott Guthrie: ?I want to run 200 mph and join the Bonneville 200mph Club.  I?m using a NEW Goodyear LSR tires.?

AMA: ?Sorry, that tire was made in 1974, in 1978, we only can rate that tire to 199mph, and then 175mph in 1979.?

SG: ?So, if I qualify at 202mph, what happens ??

AMA: ?Then we do not allow you to run for record the next morning.  Further, your week is over until you change tires.?

SG: ?  Well, If I can hold my qualification run to 198 mph, and then I go down the track at 202, and return at 205, what happens ??

AMA: ? If you go down at 202, you are done, and you don?t return.?

SG: ?What am I supposed to do ??

AMA: ?The only way this can work for you is to qualify under 200, make your down run under 200, and go for it on your return run.  Then your week is over.?

Like so many others of us, I had been brought to my knees by the tires?.and the rules.

So, I quit digging !

Don Vesco somehow heard about my situation, and called to buy my ?useless? tires.  I sold him the beautiful unused tires; no further good to me.  Thankfully, Don was willing to also buy my expensive but now-useless wheels in the bargain.

Don immediately fit these very same tires to his 300mph motorcycle streamliner, and ran on ?private time? with the FIM, which was NOT subject to AMA safety rules.  Vesco, with a vehicle weighing TWICE as much as my ?lightweight? Harley, set a new world record at 303 mph ?..On tires that the AMA would only allow me to run 199 mph.

It seemed, after Selling my Firestone tires to Gordon Hoyt and the Goodyears to Don Vesco,  that I had turned from being a racer to being a tire dealer?..I also had the sneaking suspicion that I should NOT have sold the LSR tires-which were impossible to replace?..

I felt like a character in a Shakespeare play:  Selling one set of tires to buy another pair, and then maybe having to sell the second pair to buy back the 1st pair for the NEXT bike?..

Trying for the Bonneville 200 mph Club would have to wait !

I just didn?t think it would be 10-15 years !

I can go faster than the Factory can???..Right ?

There was NO WAY beat the factory guys on talent or money.
I was pretty short of brains too, so this would be a tough fight.

I campaigned my 1972 XRTT ( with #41A) - with a 1957 sportster motor successfully (That was all I had at the time) well enough that I was eventually ranked 3rd nationally in the AMA in some obscure amateur class.

But I showed at least that I could do something.

 
Photo ? My old #41 in current form as it looks today. I believe this is the ONLY (one of 2) 1972 Factory racer Harley XRTT?s that has been owned and raced by only one person in the last almost-50 years........ I bought the chassis NEW through a Harley dealer in 1972, and kept the original receipt............ ( So rare that less than 30 complete bikes were built) Recently, I shipped the bike to John Steel in Ohio.  John restored the chassis correctly, and installed an old engine I owned, that had been raced by AMA #1 MARK BRELSFORD back in the day - with the factory paperwork to prove it !.....CORRECT 1972 engine and correct 250mm Fontana 4LS front brake.

One way to get the attention of the Factory ? and perhaps convince them you are worth supporting ? is to do something technologically AHEAD of them.  For me, that was to have BETTER BRAKES??

Part of the hope was to gain some ?creditability? with Milwaukee, and maybe get secret information, and maybe ?unobtanium? racing parts.

 

Photo - When Harley designed and sold these rare XRTT bikes, (only about 30 complete bikes were built) they came equipped with the icon of all front wheel drum brakes, the 250mm Fontana four-leading-shoe.  These were usually laced with wire spokes to an 18 inch narrow rim, and supplied good stopping power.  They were troubling to maintain ? with warping from excess heat of high-speed stopping ? and they were VERY expensive.  Today, a replica wheel might be $3,500, and would be VERY heavy.  Notice the size of the brake compared to the rim.  Huge rotating mass made the bike hard to turn.  As my friend Kevin Cameron put it: ?You need that big a brake to stop a brake that big!?

 

Photo - I NEVER raced my 1972 XRTT with the huge drum, having beaten the factory to the use of easily-available and inexpensive HONDA CB750 disc brakes. Cheap, little maintenance, and much more effective. 1973 Photo by Virginia Miller.

Instead ? YEARS ahead of the factory, in 1970, I was using DUAL Honda CB750 front brake discs.  The Honda disc brakes were the first production disk brakes on motorcycles, and the design was quite conservative !  The individual disc weighed in at a WHOPPING 6.5 pounds.  Hardly racy, but good for long life without warping with thick metal.

I tried the stock dual discs in racing, and the steering effort was way too high.  My initial answer was to machine the discs down to about ? original thickness ? about the same as today?s units.

 

Photo ? Two stock discs on left, three ?skinny ? discs on right.

 

Original disc weighs in at a stunning 6.5 pounds !

 

Photo - ?Shaved? disc is svelte at less that five(5) pounds ? more than 1.5 pounds of heavy stainless steel removed !  Times two for two discs, that?s THREE pounds us useless metal and unsprung weight GONE !

 

Photo - Well, I wasn?t done !.....STILL too heavy for short tracks where heavy braking was not often needed, and lighter weight was better that ?thermal reservoir.?

 

Photo - I drilled six rounds of 36 holes ? which is 216 holes PER DISC ? more than 400 holes total.  However, the disc lost ANOTHER 18 ounces ! ? that?s a total loss for both discs of almost six(6) pounds ? almost the weight of a single original disc.  AND with WAY more braking force. 

SOMETIMES, a privateer can get ahead of the factory?.

[salt27]

Scott, we need more chapters. 

  Thanks, Don

[Old-N-Slow]

50 Years of Bonneville.
Scott Guthrie remembers

Thanks Don

Chapter #33

The sun,
burning however brightly,
always fades


In 1979, the rules had changed (again), and the American Motorcycle Association (AMA) was gone.   SCTA / BNI took the bikes in house, and ran the whole program themselves.  One of the first things the SCTA accomplished was to make rule changes so motorcycle could use Non-LSR tires over 200 mph  This was particularly helpful since there WERE NO new motorcycle LSR tires available anymore.

It?s always the Damm tires !

One of the first to take advantage of the changes was Tom Elrod, then of Austin TX.  Using the same basic plan as his double Harley Sportster-engine bike, Tom went with two Kawasaki Z1 engines.

Elrod?s 200.022mph average earned him entry into the famous Bonneville 200 MPH Club, and he became the first rider of open bikes at Bonneville to break the 200mph barrier on two different brands of bikes, Harley and Kawasaki.

 
Photo - Tom Elrod prepares to leave the line at Bonneville while drawing a lot of attention from the crowd.  They watch what may have been the first turbo double-engine 4-stroke Kawasaki in LSR.  SCTA Motorcycle head honcho Jack Dolan gives Tom and the bike a quick last once-over.  Bike, with head and tail lights, inexplicably appears street legal.  Neck area of leathers fitting the helmet was an innovation most overlooked.  I would use this trick in 2006 ? and I almost died.

Elrod was also the only rider to join the 200 Club that year !

In fact, he was the first ?Bike? member to join ?The Club? since 1974 ? five YEARS with no new bike members.  It was HARD to join the Club on a bike in those days !

Not everybody was disappointed by this turn of events.

All my running without qualifying ? let alone not setting records ? was becoming VERY unsatisfying to me! 

I felt like a shoe that didn?t leave a footprint.

Somehow, I was not quite the dominant figure I had dreamed about those long winter nights, when I was laboring in an unheated garage, under the pale glow of fluorescent lights.

In junior high school, I had a SIGNIFICANT career in little-league baseball.  I became the first child in the city league to NEVER get a hit in two full seasons of play.  NOT ONE !  I somehow matched that record at right field, where my glove never felt a fly ball for those same two years.  Later, my doctor would find significant nearsightedness that I had been compensating for my whole life ? so successfully my parents and school teachers didn?t notice the problem until my junior year in high school.

 
Photo - In one hapless ?at bat? a pitch loomed suddenly out of the misty blur, and I swung.  The opposing catcher whispered ?You know Scott, you would be better to start your swing BEFORE the ball is in my glove.? 


Trying to find a sport that might reward somebody who couldn?t see worth a darn, I took up swimming.  I was barely able to see the wall of the pool in time to make a turn.  Competition swimming continued into college, where I made the varsity every year, probably more as a gesture to my reliability coming to practice, than for talent.

Somehow, it never occurred to me that Motorcycle riding MIGHT require good vision AND eye / hand coordination??

After college, I did NOTHING athletic for 12 years, just NOTHING.  The fire ? and the faith in my own athletic ability ? had just evaporated.  My initial success at Bonneville had re-kindled my desire to win, and some of my faith in myself.

With years of failing to set a record at Bonneville, that faith was quickly eroding !

No time, no money, fat and out of shape, not in the record book anymore.

No place to go but up??

I would have to greatly improve just to be an underdog !

?Beneath the underdogs.?
Leo P, saxophone player
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptyi4Cqxp-o


I had given up ? at least for the moment ? on the idea of turbocharging my own Harley.  In my mind I thought that my intake design was especially good, but I was unable ? or unwilling - to do the work to prove that. 

But - after all ? one of the reasons we run at Bonneville is to prove we all have better ideas, right ?
?Sometimes, you just have to do something different !?

So, having given up the idea of putting a good turbo system on my own bike, AND wanting to prove my ability to produce a fast turbo Harley, I turned to Bob Tomrose, of Cotati, California ? who had been doing some real thinking about the same questions, and who had not been able to break the 200mph barrier with his own turbo 1958 Harley Duo-Glide. Bob was one of the few ? perhaps the ONLY other - Harley riders at Bonneville that had a good head for turbo, AND was willing to think out of the box.  I designed an intake system for Tomrose, and sent him some money to build the system.  He promptly hit 200 mph.

 
Photo - Bob Tomrose?s 1958 Harley Duo-Glide was substantially modified to run 200mph at Bonneville.  Full fiberglas fairing covers 81 cu in motor, and turbo.  ?Gentle? salt stripe on front of fairing and almost none on front tire suggest hard salt.  Italian forks and spoke wheels mount racing rubber.  Four speed transmission puts power to skinny back tire. The secret was in the intake manifold !  Over 200mph on this bike in 1979 might have needed over 200 horsepower.  Without the new SCTA rule on tires, Bob had no hope for a ?red hat.? DORDE WOODRUFF photo[/b]

 
Photo - Bob Tomrose?s bike ran straight methanol, Hilborn injection, very special magneto ignition and LOTS of hoses.  Bike was fastest sit-on single-engine bike of 1979 at over 200mph.  Engine problems prevented a record over 200. Could this have been the most powerful non-nitro single-engine Harley to run at Bonneville up to that time ?  With ?draw-through? fuel injection, would the methanol have condensed out in the intake plumbing?  Would the liquid alcohol form ?rivers? in the intake plumbing?  Would there be a chance of ?hydraulicing? a cylinder ? Stock lower end MIGHT make 10 pounds of oil pressure ? would that be enough for a plain-bearing turbo ?  DORDE WOODRUFF photo

It was unfortunate for Tomrose that the significant ?red hat? of the 200 MPH Club was not awarded, and I always thought that that loss took a lot of life out of Bob?s racing program.

Again, I was reminded that whenever I felt proud of my own accomplishments, I needed to periodically take a long moment to remember those who were probably MORE deserving, but not as lucky.


All this was again brought home to me in 2018.  Jesse Brown  of JBTech, Las Vegas, had joined the Guthrie Levie Racing Team as an electronics guru ? but also wanted to campaign a turbo Buell twin cylinder bike at Bonneville in his ?off time.?

Jesse?s first 2018 effort proved pretty fruitless. Basically he went slower than a comparable normally aspired bike.  Between 2018 World of Speed and World Finals, I designed a better induction system for him.  Jesse ? a gifted builder - fabricated the whole system in record time, took the otherwise-unchanged bike back to the salt, and went more than 16 mph faster !

Once again, the secret was the design of the intake manifold??

 
Photo - Jesse Brown, left, helped John Levie, right, drive the Guthrie Levie team bike past 320 mph to become the world?s fastest motorcycle with sidecar.  MS3PRO was a huge help.  Helping someone go fast is not always as satisfying as going fast yourself.  Jesse is shooting for 200mph on his own Buell motorcycle.  Youth-styling Jesse?s hair is the same shade of blue as John?s new 300 Club hat !  Young folks ARE getting into Bonneville??.Will Jesse be the first BUELL rider in the 200 Club on gasoline? Michelle Levie photo

Having ?shelved? the turbo ideas for the moment, I thought what was most likely doable for me would probably turn out to be a double-engine bike based on two (2) Harley Sportsters.  I had the engines, and they had set records at Bonneville, so the power-plant stuff was well on the way.  With 100hp from each 1,000cc engine, I felt sure that I could achieve over 200 mph, and maybe join the Bonneville 200 MPH Club with the reliability of normal aspired smaller engines on gasoline!  I looked to the APS/AG-2000cc class, since the record was ?only? 159 mph.  IF I built it, and made the engine coupling reliable, I would have a decent chance for a record and a ?red hat.?

My thinking was that if I could race to 175mph with one engine, than I would probably go faster with TWO engines.  Some years later I talked with VINCENT hero Dave Matson about two engines.

Photo - Dave had gone one-way at 230mph ? and a 225mph 2-way record, way back in 1988 with only ONE 1955 engine.  I asked: ?Dave, if you could go 230mph with one engine, how fast could you go with TWO engines.?  Dave, in his laconic mid-western drawl observed: ?  Maybe 231 mph, if I could actually make it work AND stay together?  Hardly an endorsement for my twin-engine ideas ??..

 

Photo - Scott Guthrie 1978 drawing.  Original drawing of the proposed  2000cc Double engine Harley bike. Rider is quite low with gas tank in the seat.  Double top-tube(s) for rigidity and low profile ? reducing frontal area.   Firestone ?roadster tire in rear, Goodyear LSR tire in front.  Better aero seat than the Bob George double,.  Today I would use rear suspension rather than tire flex for ride quality.  Air over rider?s back would be good.  Seat helped move center of pressure rearward. No ?fanny? problems here !

I should NOT have sold those Bonneville tires !

My only small innovation for big bikes would be to use some little bit of streamlining BEHIND the rider.  In that period, Warner Riley, Bob George, Jim Angerer, Leo Payne, Dave Campos, Tom Elrod and most other fast riders were using essentially no aero behind the rider.  The 125cc CanAm was of course the big exception, and we all just ignored it, intending no doubt to rely on brute horsepower, rather than sensible. low-cost, no maintenance, smart aerodynamics.

One of the heartbreaks of being an engine guy !

PHOTOS:  In the original articles, lovingly published by Wendy at the BONNEVILLE RACING NEWS, there were PICTURES !...It is a little too cumbersome for me with my 75 year old pre digital brain to post those here since it involves photobucket and things like that.  IF you go to my facebook account, the pictures are attached to THAT version of these articles..........https://www.facebook.com/scott.guthrie.3154.........

[Old-N-Slow]

50 Years of Bonneville.
Scott Guthrie remembers


Chapter #33 cont

Double my fun, or double my trouble?

SPEED, hiding in plain sight.

My double-engine plans advanced as far as doing scale drawings, buying mild-steel tubing (NOT stainless), designing the fairing, and calculating center of gravity and estimating center of pressure ? which was an advanced concept for motorcycles at that time; almost 40 years ago.

From 1969 to 1971, I was a Graduate Assistant in the Department of Physical Oceanography at Florida State University, while I was working on my master?s degree.  Part of my assignment was to fabricate equipment for long ocean service ? which made resistance to corrosion a value. 

Stainless steel was much admired, although at that time, 50 years ago, it was considered problematic to machine and weld in odd alloys.  This was a real concern for us since we bought a lot of government surplus metal stock, and had NO idea as to alloy or heat treat !

Somehow, I acquired the machining and welding ability to produce ocean-going items successfully.  I recall a group of faculty coming to my lab to ?have a look? at what I was doing.  The unannounced visit found me stick-welding a two inch stainless tube to a stainless plate. 

One of the more craft-educated faculty wondered if I would be able to remove enough of the stick-welding rod flux to ?visual? a ?good weld? of more than six inches of length.  I picked up my welder?s chipping hammer, and gave the plate a good whack ? NOT directly on the weld.  The ENTIRE six inches of flux jumped off in one piece, leaving NO flux behind.  End of discussion.

Because of the salt environment at Bonneville,  I had considered using stainless steel tubing for my ?double,? but decided it would be easier to use a lower alloy of conventional steel in case I had to do additions or repairs at the track, probably with just a torch.

All this experience with welding deep-ocean stuff was not without it?s drawbacks.  Before easy availability of stainless steel, many parts were hot-dip galvanized with zinc.  I welded PLENTY of galvanized parts, and probably inhaled a life-time tolerance of zinc in those two years.  For 20 years after, if I walked past a construction site, and they were welding, and I smelled that zinc, I would get sick??

 
Photo ? Properly done stick welding of Stainless steel can be attractive and very satisfying.  Knowledge of metallurgy helps.  Another machinist at FSU in the late 1960?s was also a good welder.  He advised my to use a little paint brush, and PAINT the fresh, clean, hot weld with a little olive oil.  It was his thinking that the hot metal would accept extra carbon into the surface of the weld, and help prevent corrosion.
 
Photo - Scott Guthrie 1978 Drawing. Small opening for air-cooled engine and carburation.  4.0 to 4.5 square feet of frontal area.  Long, low, skinny, heavy, powerful, narrow??.just right !

TRACTION ?

Among others, Carole Shelby is quoted as saying:
 ?there is no such thing as too much horsepower;
just too little traction?

Traction at Bonneville is always a question, and Bonneville- like drag racing ? has a long and glorious history of double engine racers, both cars and bikes.

Need more weight? 
Need more power?
Just add an engine!

Unlike drag racing, Bonneville often rewards bikes (and cars) that are heavier.  It?s an easy theory:  Need more weight for traction? Add hundreds of pounds of ballast.  While you are at it, make the ballast another engine, and have double the power! BUT: can you make it handle ?


Didn?t Jim Lindsley join the Bonneville 200 MPH Club in a gas roadster with TWO engines ?  When did they stop allowing multi-engines in the roadster classes?

?Miler Mike? Mike Stewart remembers??

 

Scott,

I just sent you another pic of the car. It clearly shows an air inlet in the nose of the car and the tonneau area behind the driver, indicating to me the car had front and rear engines.

In reading about the car in Google there are varying versions of the story I remember reading in Hot Rod Magazine as a kid. 

What I remember from Hot Rod was AJ Michelle of Louisiana had loaned Lindsley his stocker engine which Lindsley put his cam, injection and magneto on and ran the record and then returned the engine. That?s the story I remember. However, that story does not quite fit as the front of the car was lettered ?Cal-Louie? for each of the home states. I think it was already lettered. So how did that happen?

Another version I read on google was that AJ Michelle had loaned Lindsley the engine out of his stocker to run in Lindsley?s 34 Ford coupe after he broke the engine and they became a partnership after that and teamed up on the modified.

And, another version of the story is Lindsley had run the car in 53 as a single engine and got the record at 154 mph (the car was built to accommodate 2 engines with body work built and painted by George Barris Kustoms)(my wording) and in 1954 AJ Michelle showed up at Bonneville with his own engine and that Lindsley decided to go ahead and run it. This version doesn?t seem to fit too well, since the body work and paint had already been done. So, I?m going fall back on the 1954 Hot Rod Magazine version that I read in the barbershop in 1954. Hot Rod was there on the Salt, and I believe was a first hand version of what occurred. The others are stories repeated and re repeated.

If you want me to I can try and contact Gary Lindsley, Larry?s brother and another of Jim?s sons and see if he knows any better details. And you can go to Google and see what you think. Actually my version doesn?t work either, because the nose of the car was lettered, unless they did it onsite when the engine was installed. So, I don?t know? What I?ve always believed doesn?t seem to fit either.

Have fun with this.

Best Regards,
Mike Stewart
Sent from my iPhone

Scott,
Yes, the double engined car was the one that got Jim Lindsley into the Bonneville 200 MPH Club.

That was in 1953. A year later SCTA/BNI rewrote the rules to say only Streamliners could run multiple engines, and that took care of that.

Another oddity was in 1952 Joe Mabee, driving the Mabee Drilling Spl set a record over 200 in a home built Sports Car running a Ray Brown injected Chrysler on alcohol. There was no differentiation between Gas and Fuel at that time. A year later there was a big change.  Sports Cars became gas class cars. Another SCTA/BNI tweak of the rules to take care of an earlier oversight. It?s all just history. No one, outside of a few, even knows about it.

Best Regards,
Mike Stewart 



 

Photo- December 1953 indicates The Lindsley ?double roadster? had run at Bonneville.  (Sponsorship from BARRIS Customs and HERBERT Cams ? there?s history there) Text from the (brief) article indicates one engine failed, and the car ran with only one power plant ? and still set a 154mph record.  CAL-LOUI is on the nose.  I only met Larry ? the first of THREE Lindsley?s to race at Bonneville - a few times in the 1970?s.  In this picture, he looks impossibly young.  20 years in the salt desert can age a man !

One take away from Mike?s discussion is that even with substantial magazine coverage, and plenty of motivated hot rodders watching, there is still a ?memory problem?


Meanwhile ? in motorcycle land !


 
Photo - In 1970, Don Sliger may be preparing to back onto the starting rollers after adjusting his friction steering damper.  Sliger?s down run posted over 203 MPH to become the first ?naked? bike over 200 at Bonneville.  That was faster than any record then-set by fully faired Harleys on Nitro ! Meticulously prepared double engine Royal Enfield had special connecting gear drive on both sides of the engines.  Nitro in backbone frame helped Sliger become the first unstreamlined (naked in today?s terms) bike over 200 MPH.  Gearing ?  REAR sprocket for the low-reving bike, at three inches in diameter,  is MAYBE as big as an oatmeal cookie !  Clutch gave up on the return run ? NO red hat?..Builder Jimmy Enz was critical to the effort, and they both shared space in the pits with??That Rascal Burt Munro ! Britbike forum
 
Photo ?Enz / Sliger engine coupling drive on BOTH sides of the engine.  I wonder if that was by chain or by gear ?  Royal Enfield is a long-time manufacturer ? originally based in England  ( They also made ?made like a gun? araments).  I wonder if this British bike used DUNLAP LSR tyres ? they were occasionally available?..


 
Photo - Enz and Sliger were not the only builders to run Royal Enfield at Bonneville, but they were the most successful.  As a rider, Enz was only able to post a record of 141mph on his single-engine bike.  On this double Enfield, notice exhaust-heated carburetor float bowl.  Is that a 1963 Bonneville inspection sticker ? Do the pieces-of- spaghetti frame inspire confidence?  Unpainted frame and fresh welding hint at a recent completion.   NO tension adjustment for front chain!  Will the loose chain jump the sprockets with 200 Nitro horsepower?  Will the long fender mounting bolts irritate his fanny? Today?s Hayabusa & such riders might want to reflect on this 1963 concept of 1,400cc and 4 cylinders.  With an excellent modern fairing, a big load of nitro, and the longevity to run both ways (with PUSHRODS & 2-VALVES), something like this might have seen 235mph??ALMOST 60 YEARS AGO.

 
Photo - Jim Mosher?s modern twin-Indian 2 x 99dcc flatheads.  Most sanitary sit-up Bonneville double I have seen !  For some, the lure of double the power and better traction and stability is a siren song.




Somehow, my four cylinder Harley never advanced past the design and procurement stage.  I was entering another line of self-employed work, and funds did not allow racing my own bike.

Facing the end of my state job, I was concerned about cash flow, and how best to spend my time.  I had almost all the things needed to finish the ?double? project, and I did have the time.  The costs of travel to and from Bonneville, and the wear-and-tear on my van and equipment were concerns.  The biggest thing was the possibility that those three weeks in August could be spend doing something for which I would be PAID attracted me.


PHOTOS:  In the original articles, lovingly published by Wendy at the BONNEVILLE RACING NEWS, there were PICTURES !...It is a little too cumbersome for me with my 75 year old pre digital brain to post those here since it involves photobucket and things like that.  IF you go to my facebook account, the pictures are attached to THAT version of these articles..........https://www.facebook.com/scott.guthrie.3154.........

[WOODY@DDLLC]

About Sliger's runs - the primary chains failed so they switched to gear drive and promptly twisted off the clutch! 
That was my first trip and I was so impressed that this guy would tell an FNG everything and anything you wanted to know!
This link has a link to my 1970 photos: http://www.landracing.com/forum/index.php?topic=11133.msg196815#msg196815

[Stan Back]

I can't remember any of the details, but Sliger was knocking them dead in the early 70s at El Mirage.

[Old-N-Slow]

50 Years at Bonneville
Scott Guthrie Remembers

Chapter #34


"What a long strange trip it has been." Grateful Dead

Pliocene Epoch - The End of the Harley Era

 ?I don?t know what it means,
But I know it means something.?
John D. MacDonald?s words,
spoken by Travis McGee:



I had carefully studied many of the successful Bonneville racers and my attention often returned to Don Vesco.  My opinion was then ? and still is ? that Don was the most clever guy about Bonneville that I knew, and I always got the feeling that he was doing secret stuff in plain sight.  Secret stuff that helped him be very successful, and that people overlooked because they didn?t know what to look for.

In 1978, I had entered a completely new line of work.  I had been college-trained as a High-school shop teacher, and that was largely what I had been doing for the last 10 years, but at the university level.  I had a master?s degree, and almost all of my PhD when I took a sideways leap into a field that I knew nothing about; that I poorly understood; and that had the potential to leave me broke and bleeding.

I started giving expert testimony about motorcycle accidents.

With the work of learning a new trade, and hunting for paying clients, I had little time or energy for building stuff for Bonneville, and little cash to go racing.










 
Photo - Many of ?us? old timers remember the Western Caf?.  Bob Higbee enjoyed his oatmeal there almost every morning, and others ate there in the evening.  This was the only place I found in all of Wendover that sold large salt crystals from near the track.  Each booth had an enlargement of a famous Bonneville picture.  One afternoon, Brien Eriksen and I were enjoying a cold milkshake while sitting in our booth and admiring the most famous motorcycle picture in the world: Rollie Free flat out on the Vincent Black Lightning. Rollie almost naked. 


?All The Blunders at Bonneville have been made ? all you have to do is to repeat them!? Musician Ry Cooder

 
Photo - I had spotted a balding older man in the booth next to us, and I signaled Brian to work with me for a moment.  I announced loudly:? You know, this picture of Rollie Free is a fake, he never did that !?  The older man turned around immediately and retorted ?That is a correct photograph, and I really DID do that !?  And so, we greeted Rollie Free?..Rider of ?The Bathing suit Bike.?

  Photo - Rollie Free?s breathtaking 1949 ?bathing suit? ride ? which resulted in a famous Bonneville record - would become a lure for others to later emulate.  Some would duplicate the act, but without the helmet - or even the bathing suit.  With the sexual overtones of the total nudity, would someone named ?Freud? be involved?

 
Photo - This famous Bonneville racer ? lightly dressed but always beautiful - used a scooter, but displayed great style, including dual headlights.

 
Photo - The SCTA?s own Tommy Smith of Turlock, CA, on the way to MORE than a fanny problem!  Riding Blackie Bernal?s 650cc Triumph in 1952, Tommy discovered that covering his body with graphite grease MIGHT help airflow, but it did NOT protect the body when losing control at 150 mph.  Tommy spent YEARS convalescing, and may have never have completely recovered.

Smith?s body position, use of a support frame, and the tiny gas tank may have been the best-ever expression of the ?prone? riding position on a conventional style motorcycle.  Note reversed intake and exhaust, maybe a little ?free? supercharging ?

Tommy?s skin-eroding crash contributed to a fad of wearing a complete leather outfits for racing on the salt. Could the popular high ground clearance, short wheelbase and a center of gravity moved to the rear all have contributed to the loss of control ? NO visible steering damper.  Otherwise beautiful form ! Note HUGE salt buildup on the front of the engine. Would that hurt cooling ? Is he using a 19 inch rear tire and 21 inch front tire for reduced wheel RPM?


Smith later said: ? In any case, I got into a high speed wobble/headshake/shimmy and/or weave at about 150mph, so I got some practice bouncing on the salt.  Recently I have been reading some reports on stability and found that light weight (I weighed 124 pounds) tends to increase the tendency to get a wobble.  Also. rearward rider weight tends to induce it too (like my riding position).?










New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings?.Lao Tsu

If I was going back to race at Bonneville again ? which was VERY doubtful -  it was to set records.  Lots of them. And they would last.  I had endured ( I mean ?enjoyed?) almost 10 years of Bonneville, spending time, money and energy to achieve something in land speed racing, but had little to show for it.  I was very disappointed in NOT having a record remaining in the record book - to me convincing evidence of a lack of ?quality? in my effort.

I wanted to go with a professional mechanic on the team, and with solid mechanical support, with lots of parts. With not only spare engines, but maybe also spare bikes.

No more wasting a whole year because of a bad crank!

This would no doubt involve money and planning. 

Could I ?cut the mustard??

?I was doin? pretty good
for the shape I was in?.?
Robbie Robertson, The Band


In the fall of 1977, I gotten some bad news from my doctor??

As part of maintaining my AMA competition license, I had to take an annual physical.

I flunked, I was 50 pounds overweight.

My doctor ? not much older than I was ? laid it on the line:

He started off: ?Scott, I don?t want to talk about your risk of adult diabetes, your poor appearance or your family history of heart trouble.  Nor do I want to discuss your utter lack of physical conditioning and total lack of sex appeal.

What we need to talk about is that 50 extra pounds of flab bouncing down the salt at 200 mph when you fall off.

Not only is that 50 fat pounds worth of kinetic energy your body will have to dissipate flopping to a stop, but it?s also 50 pounds of unnecessary fat we will have to hunt through to find your vital organs and patch you up to maybe save your life.?

Well !

I returned to competition swimming, which I had pursued with limited success in college in the early 1960?s.  After months of manic training efforts, I achieved national and world rankings, in front of local crowds that MUST have numbered in the dozens ? kind of like Bonneville.  At World-level meets, thousands of spectators cheered someone . I could only dream it would someday be me?

I also lost the 50 pounds in about six months, and kept it off through the 1990?s.

?A need for Speed? Tom Cruise, Top Gun

Later, after some years of adult competition swimming ? including a few national and world records along the way, I realized that the swim competition, satisfying and healthy as it was, did NOT really satisfy my ?Need for Speed.?  Also, I felt that it was time to ?make my mark? on the SCTA record book.

How would I do that ?

Oddly, the swim racing wound up to be VERY useful for Bonneville.  Not only would I be in better physical condition, and able to handle the heat and stress on the salt. In every swim workout, I used my motion through the water to reflect on hydrodynamics and aerodynamics.  I was also regaining my ?athletic? self confidence??..

Swimming helped Bonneville.
Bonneville helped swimming. 

As I swam endless yards in practice, I thought about the aerodynamic lessons I had learned on the salt and applied it to my body shape and position in the water.  Some of the swim training concepts I developed were eventually recognized widely in the competitive swimming world.  The weight lifting and swimming improved my physical fitness.  The weight loss reduced my aerodynamic drag.

Certainly my continuing disappointment was that I had never joined the Bonneville 200 mph Club. It was also that, in just a few months in the early 1970?s, all my records at Bonneville had been broken, and I was not ?in the book? anymore. 

 

Photo - Proudly wearing my WOOL team jacket in my early 1960?s team photo at FSU.  My college swimming had suddenly improved with my last year of eligibility, and I held the School Record for the 100 yards Breaststroke on the 400 yard medley relay.  The record stood for almost 10 years.  I was a lithe 5?10?, and ? according to the team ?stat sheet,? a BURLY 145 pounds.  With SERIOUS weight lifting as an adult, I would add almost 40 pounds of lean muscle.

My time teaching at Florida State University was becoming less and less satisfying both professionally and financially.  I had started that little business of my own, and by 1982, it was making a (very) small profit.

Being my own boss, and setting my own schedule was for me a pleasant change from working for the University.  However, there were downsides:  I had two HUGE clients in 1981 ? and I billed both accordingly.  They, however, didn?t pay ?promptly,? and I didn?t see any income from those matters until 1982.  After the clockwork precision of a state paycheck every two weeks, getting NO checks for six months was a painful lesson in cash flow.

I had started racing with the Harley Sportster because I had one. It was like picking up a tool, and looking for something to do with it.

THIS TIME, I wanted too pick the bike that would be fastest in my classes, be reasonable to maintain, (relatively) plentiful, and could run in MANY classes.


 ?You can learn more from failure than from success.? S. Honda

Well, If Soichiro Honda was correct, than I was becoming quite knowledgeable!  If I was closer to setting records again, I couldn?t tell it??

I couldn?t make time off for Bonneville in 1982, so I was left with an additional year to consider what I was doing, and how to do it.  My 1972 Harley XRTT Bonneville record setting bike was still on hand, but with no foreseeable future. I had replaced the broken crank, and then parked the bike.  It would remain untouched for the next few years. 

At that time, there was no separate class for pushrod engines, and I had learned the hard way I could not compete against the 2-strokes or the overhead-cam bikes.

Early Bonneville had taught me about meticulous preparation, strong perseverance in the face of overwhelming adversity, and to have a very strong drive to succeed at record setting.

That wasn?t working anymore ?

I doubted that I would ever race Bonneville again??.

 B B King, "The Thrill is gone"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oica5jG7FpU

 
Photo - A meditation of the futility of Bonneville??Do everything right, and either the weather, the BLM, a Virus or somebody else?s stupidity ruins it for everybody! ??Water Ski fun on the salt flats in the rainy season.  Would this hurt the coming summer?s racing by destroying the track ? Would the BLM become interested in Bonneville winter sports?  Did these fruitcakes have a clue? Did they tell the motorhome rental company ? Hemmings photo.

PHOTOS:  In the original articles, lovingly published by Wendy at the BONNEVILLE RACING NEWS, there were PICTURES !...It is a little too cumbersome for me with my 76 year old pre digital brain to post those here since it involves photobucket and things like that.  IF you go to my facebook account, the pictures are attached to THAT version of these articles..........https://www.facebook.com/scott.guthrie.3154.........

[Old-N-Slow]

50 Years at Bonneville
Scott Guthrie Remembers
BRN #212
 
Chapter #35
 
The virus re-infects.
 
The three great Bonneville truths:
 
I am from the government,
and I am here to help you.

The check is in the mail.

I have quit Bonneville racing.

Of course, I could not stay away.

I did however, want to do it better.

For some years, I had figured out that my next Bonneville effort was going to be racing 2-stroke bikes, and probably Yamahas.  No more converted street bikes now: real racers ? built by the factory to race!  The new basic bike was almost certainly going to be a Yamaha TZ750, IF I could find one at an affordable price; and IF I was allowed to own one.

The Bonneville class(s) were still in question.

I had made these early decisions, but had NOT found a suitable race bike to buy.  If I HAD gone to Bonneville in 1982, I would have taken only the Harley, and abused it again for no net effect. BIG waste of time and money?.

In 1972, my first year signing up for Bonneville, the SCTA and the AMA offered records in the 200cc class, as well as 600cc, 700cc, 883cc and 1200cc.  There were NO classes between 1200cc and 3,000cc at that time.  No records OVER 3,000cc.  Motorcycle engines only!

Ten years later in 1982, the 200cc , 600cc, 700cc and 883c classes were eliminated.  Over time, the 1200cc class expanded to 1250, 1300 and to the current 1,350cc class.  A 1650cc class was added, as was a 2,000cc class. Later, even a 3001+cc class was made available.  In the streamliner classes, we could even use CAR engines !

The take-home was that the rules were always in flux,
as new folks in the administration put their stamp on proceedings.

In February 1983, I found the perfect used bike in a classified ad in a newspaper (remember those?).  Within days, I was the owner of a tired but professionally turned-out Yamaha TZ750D of 1977 vintage ? now only six years old. Which was pretty new for me?..

A couple of phone calls, a fine dinner out to convince my wife of the doubtful intelligence of the commitment, a few hurried bank loans, 500 miles in the van, and the TZ750 was mine.

The responsibility scared me to death !

I had seen the Yamaha TZ750 at its introduction in 1974 at Daytona, and had imprinted on it.  I felt sure at the time that this was the race bike of my future, if only I could get on a waiting list and afford the financial damages.
 



Photo ? Originally issued without a Fairing, the 1974 Yamaha TZ750A was only 700cc, which was increased to a full-class-limit of 750cc within a year or two.  Four pipes without mufflers were 2-stroke loud.  The bike immediately earned a reputation for speed, evil handling and scary wobbles.  I was truly not sure my primitive riding was up to the task of such an ?aggressive? missile. It turned out that I was right to be apprehensive!


 
PHOTO - From the beginning, a RESUME was required for TZ750 purchase!  These bikes were so powerful, so fearsome (still are!) and so rare, the importer did not want them to fall into ?unprepared? ownership.  The only person I knew who was able to acquire one without a racing background was my friend Zach Reynolds of Winston Salem, NC.  I had met Zach in Daytona, on Main Street, years before where he was showing his customized 1969 Honda CB750.  When I saw Zach after his TZ750 purchase, I asked how he got the purchase past Yamaha.  He said he had somebody in the advertising department get Yamaha approval.  I was reminded that his family owned a little southern company called R J Reynolds Tobacco ?

TZ750?s were LOUD.  In those days, silencers (mufflers) were not required, and these four-cylinder bikes roared off the start at 10,000 rpm with four open 175cc pipes. 
I spectated the 200 mile Daytona race from inside the first turn, maybe 50 feet from the screaming hoard, as they went by after the green flag.  There were maybe 75 TZ750?s in the pack, and they were all wide open.

At four pipes per four cylinder TZ750 engine, the noise was equivalent to 300 screaming dirt bikes.  My ears hurt for a week, but I had seen the future of road racing in the USA, and perhaps the world.

Without realizing it back in 1974, I had also seen the future of my Bonneville racing! And now in 1983, I had finally embarked on the 2-stroke path for Bonneville.

As a youth of the 1950?s and early 1960?s, I had direct experience with 2-stroke engines ? which was mostly lawn mowers, Vespa motor scooters, mini bikes, go carts and a friend?s Zundapp motorcycle. 

Working with the family 2- stroke lawn mower, I had quickly learned that I could annoy the neighbors mightily by removing the muffler.  I knew I was having an effect because I could hear windows slamming closed in summer.  Hot-rodding the mower ended unsuccessfully when I forgot to mix the oil in the gas, and the blade stopped in mid-swing.  My father never made a point of it, but he did buy an electric lawnmower and 100 feet of extension cord.

I turned my questionable tuning skills elsewhere.

A friend had somehow come to own an early 1950?s Zundapp Super Sabre 250cc 2-stroke German motorcycle. Since the bike was stock, it obviously could be hugely improved by teenagers imitating what others were doing, educated only by the odd article in obscure magazines.
 



 
 
Photo - Of course, we knew that the most power increase could be found by removing the MASSIVE muffler, and installing a megaphone. (This was before ?expansion chambers? were part of our tuning vocabulary)  The first casualty of our tuning efforts was the practical but heavy chain guard. Notice kick starter was on the LEFT.
 
 


 
 
Photo ? ZUNDAPP Super sabre 250cc piston ? 3 rings !  I still fail to grasp the reason for three compression rings in a 2-stroke.   AND look at the WIDTH of those rings !  I now assume this was an attempt to keep compression for 250,000 miles ? even though the piston would be toast after 50,000 miles.  We KNEW that there was horsepower to be gained in modifying that piston!  The fact that the piston ? for no perceivable purpose ? had these gaping holes everywhere did not for an instant cause us intellectual trouble.

Zundapp ? at the time a HUGE German motorcycle manufacturer ? had been in business from 1917 until dissolution in 1984.  Originally a producer of large 4-stroke bikes in the 1950?s and 60?s, they concentrated on 2-strokes, with huge off-road success.  Largely forgotten now, at one time the company was one of the world?s largest motorcycle companies.
 2-strokes had no valve train, so removing the top end was pretty simple.  Loosen a few nuts and bolts and off comes the head and cylinder.  Without possessing ten times more knowledge, that was as far as we could go.  So, as was the nature of we dummies, that?s where we decided we could have the most effect. 
 



 
Photo - So simple!  We just got out our files, and cut down the top of the piston crown area, thus changing the timing of the opening and closing of the ports.  Kind of like changing the timing and duration of a camshaft in a 4-stroke.  It might have been more effective if we had known WHAT to change, and by HOW MUCH.



 
Photo - Eventually, like many hot rodders, we found the pistons were begging to be more heavily modified.  We were of course, untroubled by not having a clue about the theory.  More holes just HAS to be better, right ?

We kids were also a little interested in NSU German motorcycles, but they were harder to understand, being mostly 4-strokes, and certainly out of our price range.  I had been introduced to NSU by Hot Rod magazine in the late 1950?s

NSU ("Mechanische Werkst?tte zur Herstellung von Strickmaschinen"), like Zundapp, was another venerable German vehicle manufacturer, having started making motorcycles in 1901, before both Harley and Indian, and making cars in 1905.  Although essentially forgotten today, at one time, they were the largest maker of motorcycles in the world.

NSU was using blown 4-strokes in the 1950?s,
which was also WAY beyond our skill level.
 
 


 
Photo - Classic photo of the two NSU factory riders and their bikes at Bonneville.  The memorialized ?Craig Breedlove Telephone Line? is in the background.  Right bike set a record with W. Hertz over 211 mph in 1956 !  The record still stands in 2020?..The bike was actually a sit-on bike with a streamlined body.  HUGE frontal area!. Left hand bike is a real reclining streamliner with small engines.  Rider H. Mueller set a 125cc record at 150mph in the same fall 1956 meet.  Americans noted the lightweight and very practical canvas reclining rider?s seat, and immediately named the bike ?The Flying Lawn Chair.?



 
Photo - Hertz 211 mph air cooled 500cc bike looks a little odd without it?s concealing fairing.  Thin tubing, primitive forks with a pillar rear suspension promise a punishing ride. Wheelie bars in 1956 ? This true supercharger was mechanically driven.  When asked what the fuel was, one German mechanic with a thick accent answered: ?A fluid.?

No strangers to double-overhead-cams, racing or superchargers, they built the first ? back in 1956 ? motorcycle to run over 200 mph.  They even posted a 125cc record 150mph in ?56.  In the late 1950?s, NSU was a very respected maker and racer!

In the early 1950?s, the idea that a motorcycle could be ridden over 200 mph was so intriguing, that the candidate rider was written about in such detail that his breakfast on a normal morning was photographed with little post-it notes showing the number of calories.
It was this sort of dream that tortured us as kids in the 1950?s. but we weren?t ready for blown double overhead cams yet.  But then, neither was Chevrolet.  So we had to play with lawn mowers.



 
Photo ? Six years before NSU, Vincent rider Rollie Free (He of the bathing-suit bike) tried a similar idea, and found the tail wagging the dog when he drove past the gap in the mountains and encountered too much wind.  Bonneville can reward experimentation, but experience is bought dearly.  Wendover gas station, in the background, is still there 70 years later.  (But, ice cream no longer available) No doubt the center of pressure (CP) is behind the center of gravity (CG) but did the leverage make the bike a rear-steer device? Short wheelbase  and HIGH CG and CP probably didn?t help.

I spent a lot of otherwise-usable high-school time hanging out at the VESPA motor scooter dealership downtown on MAIN Street ! ? (when was the last time you saw a motorcycle dealer DOWNTOWN ? let alone on a Main street), wanting to buy and own a Vespa scooter.  I could have used some of that time next door, at the Model and Hobby shop, where they were always ?testing? 2-stroke model airplane engines ? many running nitro.  Model airplanes were the first home of modern 2-stroke porting.

Likewise, as I pedaled my bicycle home from school, I could stop in and see new go-carts for sale at a lawn mower shop.  It never occurred to me to ask the owner of the shop what made one engine ?better? than another.

Of more use were the three full-on machine shops on my bicycle?s homeward path.  Those guys let me see what they were doing, and explained it !  Lathes, mills, welding, cutting and other manly stuff.  I would return to them when I was building my own go-carts.

 I had the confidence of my ignorance.

PHOTOS:  In the original articles, lovingly published by Wendy at the BONNEVILLE RACING NEWS, there were PICTURES !...It is a little too cumbersome for me with my 76 year old pre digital brain to post those here since it involves photobucket and things like that.  IF you go to my facebook account, the pictures are attached to THAT version of these articles..........https://www.facebook.com/scott.guthrie.3154.........

[Old-N-Slow]

50 Years at Bonneville
Scott Guthrie Remembers

New technology, what?s that?
 
Chapter #36

My new race bike for Bonneville in the 1980's was to be the fearsome Yamaha TZ750.
 
Most post WWII 2-strokes were relatively simple engines ? one cylinder with maybe two ports (intake and exhaust) ? and were easy to work on, but harder to understand.  The first motorcycle I rode, in 1958, was a 2-stroke. By the early 1960?s, I had given those up for 4-strokes.  I just completely moved away from owning and racing 2-strokes ? until 1983.
 
 


 
 
Photo - In the early days, most 2-strokes had something like these ?deflector pistons.?  The factory porting was so primitive that the PISTON CROWN was used to control the flows of intake and exhaust.  Not surprisingly, this resulted in poor power, poor flame-front travel, poor chamber shape,  poor combustion, poor gas mileage and very hot pistons. BUT ? they were cheap to build in post WWII Europe.  Can you see the tiny pins in the ring grooves that PREVENT the rings from turning?  A ring-end slipping into an open port can lead to GREAT damage.  Lots of oil, rich mixtures and low compression can provide miracles of longevity ? which uneducated teen agers can defeat almost immediately.



 
Photo ? A tiny pin located the ring ends.  How many of us have broken a ring by trying to ?persuade? the piston into the cylinder with the rings in the wrong position ?


 
Photo - Notice in this style of deflector piston design that the exhaust port and intake port are within fractions of an inch of each other.  Would this have created a crowded work area ?  Would it have put a LOT of heat into the intake charge?
 
 
 
Photo - More rational design and widely used today, minus the deflector in high-output examples.
A LOT of technology improved in those 20 plus years since I forgot 2-strokes, especially since those years including the flowering of 2-stroke Grand Prix motorcycle racing, with full Japanese factory participation.
Things had changed.
My first eye-opener was a public-library paper (in German) that discussed Schnuerle porting.
I am sure I would not have understood the paper even if I COULD have read German.
The basic thought was that the air flow WITHIN the 2-stroke cylinder was even more important than for a 4-stroke engine !  AND that the old deflector piston was almost useless !





 
Photo - Surprisingly, the first use of this fanciful design in production was in a model airplane engine.  Developed in Germany in 1926, this system is still used today.  I had this type of porting in my FACTORY race bikes as late as 1980.  Yup, I should have spent more time in that hobby shop, instead of the scooter shop !
 
 
 


 
Starting from only the two ports in my mid-teen years, these little holes in the cylinder wall proliferated beyond imagining !
 


 
Suddenly, by the time of my return to Bonneville in 1983, 2-stroke cylinders had as many ports as I had fingers!  Here, the spark plug hole is in the center of the picture, surrounded by intake and exhaust ?holes.?  There were so many holes in the cylinder wall that it looked like perforations on a postage stamp!  I could not grasp how there could be any compression at all, let alone enough to make power. 



 
There were so many different kinds of ports, I was pressed to understand what they actually did, and if they actually did what they were supposed to do. With so many holes, lack of cylinder-wall strength in aluminum can lead to cracking.
My education was on an express elevator up !
I reviewed my 1983 knowledge of 2-stroke motorcycles.  This was quite easy since I essentially knew nothing modern; 10 minutes was more than enough.

My new race bike for Bonneville was to be the Yamaha TZ750.

So, here I was in possession of one of the most fearsome International Grand Prix motorcycles ever available to the public, and I was unaware of quite how to correctly fill up the gas tank, and how to start the bike.



PHOTOS:  In the original articles, lovingly published by Wendy at the BONNEVILLE RACING NEWS, there were PICTURES !...It is a little too cumbersome for me with my 76 year old pre digital brain to post those here since it involves photobucket and things like that.  IF you go to my facebook account, the pictures are attached to THAT version of these articles..........https://www.facebook.com/scott.guthrie.3154.........

[manta22]

Scott, speaking of 2-stroke engines have you ever seen the 4 cylinder air-cooled 2-strokes that McCulloch built for the military drones built by Radioplane in the late '50s?

[Old-N-Slow]

Scott, speaking of 2-stroke engines have you ever seen the 4 cylinder air-cooled 2-strokes that McCulloch built for the military drones built by Radioplane in the late '50s?

Interesting points !

Those were built for lowest cost (there were after all, single use), and not power.

But that architecture had so much more to offer !

[Old-N-Slow]

50 Years at Bonneville
Scott Guthrie Remembers

Chapter #37a

The TZ750 dream begins

?When you come to a fork in the Road ? take it.?  Yogi Berra

 

The magnificent TZ750A was made by Yamaha primarily to race in the Daytona 200 mile race, and to represent the company as capable of racing at the highest level in the USA, and win the world?s most important race.  In order to do that, they were required to build 200 examples, and make them available to the public; which they did.


Now that I actually owned a Yamaha TZ750, I was confronted with not only how to ride and race it, but how to do so in a way that reflected well on others who had done so ? and had done it well.

I was living with ghosts; many famous men had won famous races with these TZ750?s.  Only a few hundred TZ750?s had been made ? strictly for racing ? and I was somehow allowed to own and race one myself. 

Late at night, I almost imagined riding along with Kenny Roberts, Steve Baker, John Long - all heroes ? who had great success on the TZ750. Fortunately for them, I was never allowed to do that.

However, I felt that I was justified in being terrified that I would crash and burn the first time I rode a bike so powerful ? and so feared.

At Bonneville in the mid to late 1970?s, I had carefully watched Don Vesco and Bill Vickery of Colorado running Yamaha TZ750?s and saw the huge LSR potential of the TZ750.  Unfortunately for me, in the mid 1970?s, the road racing world had also seen the potential of the bike, and price and availability in the 1970?s were nowhere near affordable for me.  Don and Bill were BOTH Yamaha dealers, and so had ?access? to TZ750 bikes ? and factory racing parts.

In 1974, the bike was so ferocious that Yamaha Racing USA required a current resume from a prospective buyer, to prove they were capable of using the outrageous horsepower that had never before been offered for sale.

All for $3,495 dealer cost in 1974??..

The TZ750 gained immediate attention, winning the Daytona 200 on the first try in 1974.  (Yamaha would win the 200 mile race the 13 straight years, and help cause the TZ750 class of bikes to be shelved so that ?spectator interest? could be improved.  Hard to interest folks when the only question is ?which TZ750 will win.?)

They were too good for their own good !

The low initial cost, ease of maintenance and high quality of the race-ready bike made them so desirable to professional racers that they were almost unobtainable to ?ordinary riders? for almost 10 years. 

And as far as Yamaha was concerned, I was QUITE ordinary !

There were 1974 reports from England ? where the bikes were particularly hard to obtain ? that if a rider crashed and died, there would be people making the widow offers for the wreaked bike before it had clattered to a stop.


I waited long enough -1983- that they became cast-off old race bikes, and then I began buying them up?..Eventually owning almost more than 30 of the things.


As with the Harley XRTT, I wanted to race the bike before setting out for Bonneville, but THIS time, I would hire a professional rider with a chance of winning and hope to also learn something about modern 2-stroke engines.

The immediate answer was John Long of Miami.

Responding to an out-of-town newspaper classified ad, I hurried downstate to see the bike. I returned home, and went hopefully to my credit union to plead for financing. Within days, I had bought my first TZ750 in February of 1983.

A month later, my team had taken 8th place ? John Long riding and running the team - in that same famous Daytona 200 mile race.  John and the bike had earned more in race winnings than the purchase price of the bike.

Now, THAT is the way to start a race program !



 
Photo ? 1983: The beginning of the Bonneville Dynasty.  John Long rides Scott Guthrie?s Yamaha 1977 TZ750D to 8th place in the 1983 Daytona 200 mile race and on to 10th in 1984? against strong fields of ?factory bikes?.  Winnings (Even with primitive standard fairing)  produced enough to pay the cost of the bike and Bonneville.  This Guthrie TZ750 bike - and others like it - would go on to set almost fourty world speed records on the Bonneville Salt Flats under Guthrie and Long.  The Daytona 200 motorcycle race is very much like the Daytona 500 NASCAR race.  Both start the season, and both are the most important of the year ? it?s like starting the baseball season with the World Series! LUKE photo




In February of 1983, I had approached John Long ? a world famous motorcycle road racer living in Miami Florida ? to campaign my new bike in the 1983 Daytona 200 mile race.  After some preliminary telephone discussion, we agreed to meet over dinner in Miami.  It turned out that John was the original owner of my new bike, and he had finished ? as a private rider ? an astounding 6th place against full factory riders ? on this same bike a few years earlier.

For Daytona, I sensibly turned the riding, crewing and race strategy over to John Long, since my road racing had ended around 10 years before.  That was a smart thing to do, since what I knew about racing motorcycles in road racing at that time would have filled a single page, while John?s international knowledge would have filled several books.

At Daytona, - with GREAT effort - I tried to keep quiet,
stay out of the way, and maybe listen to my betters.

PHOTOS:  In the original articles, lovingly published by Wendy at the BONNEVILLE RACING NEWS, there were PICTURES !...It is a little too cumbersome for me with my 76 year old pre digital brain to post those here since it involves photobucket and things like that.  IF you go to my facebook account, the pictures are attached to THAT version of these articles..........https://www.facebook.com/scott.guthrie.3154.........