V Twin Dragbikes
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V Twin Dragbikes |
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CLICK ON THE IMAGES TO OPEN A HIGH QUALITY VERSION IN A NEW WINDOW |
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HISTORICALLY this must be the most popular format for drag racing. In the early days Vincents, JAP's and Harley Davidsons. Today the popularity of the Supertwin classes, and in the States organisations like the All Harley Drags ensure we see and HEAR these thundering beasts regularly. |
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MY dad was a grass track racer in the 1950's, and his enthusiasm continues, to the extent of pointing out the error of my ways with regard to drag racing! It's no surprise then, that I first encountered Alf Hagon through his amazing career in that sport. Not content with dominating grass track racing, Alf took up sprinting and drag racing in the early 1960's. From '64 to '69 Alf raced the Shorrocks supercharged JAP seen here. In '67 he had become the first British rider in the 10's with a tyre smoking 9.93 and by 1969 had run 9.28 at 157mph. Initially the bike ran a 2 speed Norton gearbox whilst the engine was developed and then went to a single speed countershaft setup. In 1968, using a 3 speed gearbox, Alf had a crack at the UK speed record at Honington air base. Despite a number of problems he became the first British rider to top 200, with a run at 206.54mph. In 1994 at the age of 62 Alf put in an appearance at the Ultimate Classic Bike Sprint where he laid down a tyre smoking mid 10. Not bad after a 25 year lay off! |
Photo courtesy Jon Spoard
Alf told me that in the 1960's he built 10 chassis kits for Sandy Kosman in the USA. Interestingly for me, these were for the Honda CB450 engine (precursor of our CB500T). Alf built one up with a Shorrocks blower, but was unable to make a success of the bike with the limited time available.
The picture on the right is from some contemporary literature and describes Alf as an 'enthusiastic owner'. Little did they know why he really had the bike! After Hagon had finished with the engine it was replaced in the frame and sold on, maybe it's still around somewhere. |
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ACROSS the 'Pond' we see the first bike in to the 8's (or was it, see below?). At Bakersfield in 1971 Joe Smith thundered to a new record of 8.96 at 167.28mph on this nitro burning 1800cc Harley Davidson 'Shovelhead'. Using S & S crank,Burkhardt barrels, Venolia pistons, Leinweber cam and S & S carb. Ignition by Joe Hunt magneto and the modified HD gearbox used top gear only. Joe Smith built the chrome-moly 70" wheelbase frame himself and
rear tyre was a 4.00X18 M & H. If you'd like to see bikes like this in action get a copy of 'On Any
Sunday', the classic early 70's bike film. The drag racing action is short
but excellent. I'm indebted to Ron Maranto for identifying some of the
riders; the race featured, is between Ron on his nitro 105 inch Harley
Shovel and Larry Welch riding Sonny Routt's nitro double Triumph. Ron would like to get in touch with Larry, so if you have any contact information please get in touch with Team Fang in the first instance. |
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WHAT engine shall we use in our Supertwin? Oh we'll build our own....! Amazingly enough that's exactly what a few teams have done. The Servex 'Nitro Twister' is a wonderful example of what you can do with a lot of Swedish engineering skill. The engine is based on the Chrysler 426 Hemi JP1 top fuel car engine The result is a 2000cc 90° V twin of massive proportions. Initially the bike was run unblown as in the first two pictures but later an Opcon Autorotor blower was added with dramatic results. Obviously using the Chrysler as a basis was useful in that pistons etc were readily available. However this didn't stop the Servex crew from making their own heads, crank, injection system, clutch etc. Combine all this with carbon fibre bodywork and the result is a remarkable achievement, and one of the quickest fuel Supertwins in Europe. |
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ROB van Geffen runs a Harley Davidson dealership so it's only natural that he would race a HD. No ordinary HD though, 4 valve billet heads of his own design combined with a supercharger made him a consistent 6 second runner. Not one to rest on his laurels, his latest bike is a beauty with DOHC cam heads. The front head is reversed with exhaust exiting on the left and supercharger mounted ahead of the engine. Preparation of his bikes is exquisite, by the way he also builds the frames! Bottom is an image composed from 3 photos taken at the 2002 Speedfreaks Ball. White band down the right side is a gazebo support. Image is 68kb. |
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HERE'S what sometimes happens running lots of nitromethane. With such huge cylinders on the Supertwins, either a head blows off or a piston gives up. Both of these bikes are unblown nitro HD's photographed at the 2001 European Finals. At this meeting attrition among the twins was high as, presumably, spare parts and money were running out. Note the huge billet Karling 'Fast Cat' crankcases. |
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LARS Wahlberg's Harley is a typical example of a top fuel Harley; billet Karling 'Fast Cat' cases and 'Pumpen' heads by Mothers Engineering. Note the restraining straps around top of the crankcases and over the heads. These are intended to contain the big lumps of engine in the event of an explosion. Svein Gottenberg of Norway tested these beyond there limits this year (2001), when his front cylinder head make a break for freedom slicing the front of the frame off! Check out his site to see the amazing sequence of photos as the bike hurtles down the track on the frame rails; Svein still hanging on to the handlebars attached to the now horizontal forks! Best of all he walked away from this horrific crash unscathed. |
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HERE is a little collection from the 2001 Super Series round 3 when the European Top Gas Supertwins visited Shakespeare County. Top is Job Heezen's blown Harley. Supercharger is mounted under the seat with inlet manifold arching over the rear cylinder head. The frame and riding position are reminiscent of 70's US HD drag bikes. Next we have Dan Asandeir's more contemporary looking bike, with two huge carbs and for the sake of symmetry a pair of steering dampers. Probably quite handy in the shut down area too! With such big cylinders running on petrol I suppose inlet velocity can be a problem. Four valve heads will help and to complement these, Jarg Suissdorf added 4 flat slide Mikunis. I would guess these cost more than our entire 2001 race budget.
Finally a real home brewed special. Mark Lessens mighty twin bristles with beautiful engineering from its billet barrels and heads to the superb aggressive stance of the frame. Hidden under that dummy fuel tank is the result of more painstaking hours machining; a massive single venturi horizontal plate throttle. |
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Here is another European Top Gasser. Photographed at, and winner of the 2002 UK round of the championship and ridden by Gunter Sohn. Beautifully turned out and very fast. |
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DRAG racing is about noise and speed, this bike has both in abundance and it looks so good too. Sweden's Anders Karling is now the fastest twin rider outside
the USA, I'm sure if he were to run on the US racks he would be the World's
fastest. This bike is surely the worlds loudest twin. I was standing about 3 metres away from the bike at Santa Pod in 2001 when Anders and his crew fired up, in the pits. Fingers firmly in ears I thought; 'what a beast', and then Anders flicked a switch and the motor went from methanol to nitro. The result is mind-blowing, I could feel the violent concussion of each blast on my body and stood there transfixed. Check out his site for a magnificent sound clip. To confirm this, Anders had handling problems in 2000 where the bike would leave the line anything but straight. Adjusting the exhaust outlets to face more rearward rather than sideways cured the problem! Pictures 1,3 and 4 were taken in 2001 and pic 2 in 2000.
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The supercharger is driven by two V belts and makes an evil whining noise. Note burst panel on the end of the manifold under Ander's left wrist.
In the left photo (2000) the injector sported an air filter, whilst in 2001 (photos 3 & 4) this was dispensed with. Here we see Anders fitting a cover over the injector to prevent large rodents nesting in there. The bike was photographed in the Karling Racing Team trailer where all maintenance is carried out. The floor of the trailer has a built in hydraulic lift, reflecting the immaculate preparation of the whole team.
In 2001 the rear cylinder head blew off on a couple of occasions, so you will not be surprised to hear that Anders wears a bomb proof jacket over his leathers whilst riding this fearsome beast. |
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