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June 14, 2005
"The exact speed was 213.26509 mph"
At the May Maxton Mile land speed event, Lee Shierts (no, that's not Lee in the photo above) held on for dear life as his 2004 Suzuki Hayabusa (1397cc) ripped down an old aircraft landing strip and cleared 200 mph. The engine was tricked out with a NOS wet nirous kit which boosted the normally 228hp engine to 285hp. Dymag wheels were an important part of the bike and if that speed isn't impressive enough, Lee also holds the world land speed record on an open wheel bike set in 2004 (also on Dymag wheels we'd like to add) at an amazing speed of 256mph! Doesn't time start to go backwards at those speeds?
The track is on old Air Force base from WWII in North Carolina that has been shutdown since the 60's or 70's so the condition, as you can see in the photo above, is very poor. All the more reason to be riding on Dymag's tough UP7 forged Magnesium wheels.
The strip has a 1 mile run up with the top speed measured using timing lights over a 132 foot section. There is less then a mile to shut down so, as the event site says, "brakes/parachutes are critical."
Many thanks to Don Smith for the photos and details. Don will be writing this up in an upcoming issue of Super Streetbike magazine
Posted by Ian at 11:17 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack