I should mention that by overall land speed record I meant for all vehicles, including cars.No, this was just for motorcycles, open class and single engine.
did attempt to search on the web for more information,...
Darn little on the Web unless you snag a word that leads to info. I resorted to my book on Harley History to get the numbers.
. Know anymore about the engine they used? Naturally aspirated or supercharged? Gasoline, alcohol or nitromethane?
Hilborn Fuel injected, nitro and prayer. The engines were hand grenades.
As the story goes, the West Coast Mktng Mgr was on the Salt Flats in Aug of '70 and saw Don Vesco go 251+. The Mgr. marshaled all the resources of Harley for Vesco's team. By Oct, with Cal Rayburn on the bars, they went 265+ for both the ultimate land speed record for motorcycles of any size or class and the single engine record.
Don't think other's didn't try to beat them, I saw a four engine, Honda 750 powered "Liner" in Gardena, CA, about 1975. It went 225 before an engine blew. I think an HD 74in. based engine finally broke the little Sporty's record.
Yes, I did a little more searching, and I'd have to say I'm impressed by their achievement. I'm not sure that anyone's build a faster single-engine streamliner bike yet. I guess one advantage they had going for them was the Harley engine's architecture, which allows for significant displacement increases. It looks like they set the record with an engine in the 1650-2000 cc class, which is possible for a Harley engine. Most of the Japanese inline engines, due to bore limitations, have real limitations on how far you can go with displacement. Here's a couple of relavent records:
2000CC S-F C. Rayborn H/D 8/70 265.492
2000CC S-G D. Vesco Yamaha 8/75 303.812
But tht Yamaha was a twin TZ-750 engined streamliner. And then this one:
3000CC S-BF Don Vesco Kawasaki 8/78 318.598
But I'm pretty sure that would have to be a multi-engine bike, too, as I'm pretty sure 2-3 litres is bigger than you can take any Japanese inline engine.
It does appear that development of full-streamliner bikes has slowed somewhat. Looks like most of the activity these days is in the more narrow classes. Unfaired bikes with gasoline burning engines and that sort of thing. I suspect the cost of developing all-out top speed streamliners and the dangers involved has dampened enthusiasm in this area somewhat.