Four Cylinder Dragbikes

TODAY the fastest bikes on the planet are powered by inline fours around 1300cc. Invariably the crank and cases are produced in a large garden workshop in the Midlands. Pete Davies (Puma Engineering) carves crankshafts from solid billets of alloy steel and hews large chunks of aluminium into crankcases to contain up to 1250 horse power!

Since the demise of multi engined top fuel bikes it seems that this is the only way to go. Amazingly they are pretty reliable, considering power outputs as high as 0.75hp/cc.
Current worlds fastest is Larry McBride with a 5.89 ET, he also holds the highest terminal speed of 243mph.

PIONEER of the move away from multi engined bikes was probably Ron Teson in the USA. He rode an R.C. Engineering CB750 based fuel bike with Magnuson supercharger.

Soon he was followed by a Bo O'Brochta on an 1100 Kawasaki with reversed head and Magnuson blower. By 1979 all new fuel bikes were being built to this format.

Vance and Hines launched their radically styled fueler at the end of the year and this bike was first into the 6 second bracket in 1984.

Right: Having ridden a double Harley into the mid 7's, Elmer Trett swapped to the 'rice burners' as the Japanese bikes were known, and was to hold the world record for many years. His bike 'Mountain Magic' bears a striking resemblance to a fuel bike of today, though the frame looks a little flimsy.

In the early 80's Bo O'Brochta visited the UK, here he is at Long Marston (Shakespeare County), strangely abandoned.

Photo courtesy Alan Currans

Photo courtesy Jon Spoard.

TALKING of flimsy frames, take a look at 'Bulldog', Jos Smit's bike. Front end of the frame is attached to the crankcase and head, seat is a rudimentary cover over the supercharger! Note very short wheelie bars.

The concept of using the engine as part of the frame isn't new; Vincent, Foale etc. Though I doubt it would get through scrutineering at a drag race today, especially with a Harley engine. Check out what happened to Svein Gottenberg's Harley Fuel Bike in our V-Twins section.

Photo courtesy Jon Spoard.

PHOTOGRAPHED at Elvington in 1981, Jules Boag on the first of several Alfa Romeo engined bikes.

Jules has kindly supplied photos and information on all of these so click here for the full story: CLICK

IMMACULATE preparation sums up the King Racing fueler, you really could eat your dinner off it.

The bike was built by the Brachtvogel brothers and campaigned as 'Quarter Scorcher', in which guise I believe it ran the first British '6'.
With Ian King riding and a team comprising luminaries from British drag racing, the bike has dipping well into the lower 6 second bracket in 2001 and secured Championship wins in Britain and Europe.

Ian is the ACU's drag racing Championship Co-ordinator and spends a huge amount of time and effort promoting our sport. Check out the King Racing web site from our links page, Pit Lane Gossip and the Drag Bike Forum are daily stops in our surfing.
These photos were taken at Avon Park in 1999.

ROEL Koedam's fuel bike is a beautiful example of one of the newer low slung machines. The engineering on this bike is stunning and warrants a page of its own, click here to view this 6.2 second runner in detail.

Photo courtesy Sharkman

BRIAN Johnson ('BJ') has been at the top of our sport for many years, and it was a sad day for us fans when he decided to hang up his leathers at the end of 2001.

Brian started racing in the 70's on a Honda CB750 based Street Bike, before building a Kawasaki Z1 based bike (top left) to run in the UK Pro Street class. This class then became Pro Stock and saw some close battles with Pip Higham's Suzuki GS1000, Brian making the first 8 second Pro Stock run.

In 1983 Brian and his wife Anne bought 'Big' Carl Alfeldt's US top fuel bike. At only his second meeting on the bike Brian established a new European record at 7.58 secs. At the end of the year the Johnson's went to the States where Brian worked for Alfeldt and rode to the IDBA No.1 plate.

Back in the UK in the late 80's Brian began planning a new bike to his own specification. The frame was built by Race Visions of New York, cylinder head was Yamaha FJ based, Weiand supercharger and bottom end Puma of course. Superbike magazine ran a great feature on the bike in 1990 with some beautiful studio photos.
Initially there were the inevitable teething problems which Brian resolved with the help of the McGee brothers, the result of this was a 6.67 sec. run first time out!

From that point on the 'Imperial Wizard' was constantly in the news, for example - 1991 the new WORLD record of 6.61 set at Avon Park. There were some hairy moments to like when his helmet blew off at over 200mph, and on another occasion the wheelie bars bent at high speed.

OVER the years the bike was gradually refined to include a new home made billet head with bronze skulls and a change of supercharger, not forgetting bigger brakes to cope with speeds in the 230mph plus range.

This burnout pic was taken by Brian Day at Avon Park, in I think 1994.

Two runs stand out in my memory, both from Santa Pod:

In 2000 Brian was up against Ken Cooper's Pro Mod in the first round of elimination's, although Ken was running very strong it looked like no contest. However the 'Wizard' got way out of shape off the line and BJ had to shut off and haul the bike straight, then he went for it big time. The sensation of overwhelming acceleration was phenomenal and BJ hurtled by Ken at the top end to take the win.

In 2001 we saw Brian take the European record again at 6.1. Earlier that same meeting during another 6.2 ish run he blasted by us at mid track, with the bike snaking around the rear wheel and wheelie bars in a fearsome fashion, you could almost hear the jaws dropping! This from the man who said that it takes a while to get into riding each season, after a winter riding the push bike!

I'VE always been a big fan of the Funny Bikes, and in Europe one bike has stood out - principally because of the evil noise it makes! It wouldn't be a drag bike if it didn't feature some pretty clever engineering too, and 'Special Branch' has plenty of that. Check it out here:-

BILLET monster engines from Australia. Sorry I don't have much technical information but there are some excellant photos. Check them out here:-