Lightning Bolt (motorcycle)

Lightning Bolt is an American-built streamliner motorcycle that held the motorcycle land-speed record from 1978, when Don Vesco rode it to 318.598 miles per hour (512.734 km/h),[2][3] until 1990.[4][5] It was also the fastest vehicle participating in the 1978 Bonneville Speed Week with a one-way 333.117-mile-per-hour (536.100 km/h) run.[6] It was powered by twin turbocharged inline-4 engines sourced from a Kawasaki Kz1000,[1] with a combined displacement of 2,032 cc.[7] The near-stock engines were linked at both ends of their cranks by two Gilmer belts and utilized the rear engine's gearbox.[8]

Lightning Bolt
ManufacturerDon Vesco
PredecessorSilver Bird (streamliner)
ClassStreamliner
Engine2×inline-4, twin turbo, 2,032 cc total displacement
Top speedc. 333 miles per hour (536 km/h)[1]

Lightning Bolt was apparently succeeded by another streamliner based on two turbocharged six-cylinder Kawasaki motors (probably from the early-1980s Kawasaki Z1300) that did not set records.[9] Vesco turned his attention to automobile land speed racing in the 1990s with a six-wheel car called "Skytracker" that Vesco described as a "cross between a car and a motorcycle",[10] then his final vehicle, the land speed record-setting #111 Turbinator.

Notes
  1. Robinson 2007.
  2. American Motorcyclist Association 1999.
  3. American Motorcyclist Association 1978, p. 38.
  4. FIM 2014.
  5. Morris 2005, p. 45.
  6. Noeth 2005, p. 1.
  7. Gunston, Taylor & Ewart 1984, p. 92.
  8. Burns 1993, p. 42.
  9. American Motorcyclist 1982.
  10. Noeth 2005, p. 3.

References
  • Robinson, Rocky (2007), Flat Out: The Race for the Motorcycle Land Speed Record, Motorbooks, ISBN 9781610609296
  • World Records 1979–Present (PDF), Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme
  • Morris, Mark (2005), Motorbikes, Raintree, ISBN 9781410905581
  • Motorcycle Hall of Fame: Don Vesco, American Motorcyclist Association, 1999
  • Noeth, Louise Ann (2005), Who the #$!% is Don Vesco? (PDF)
  • Burns, John (April 1993), "Z Power! – Twenty Years Ago Kawasaki Dropped a Bomb Called the Z-1", Cycle World
  • Gunston, Bill; Taylor, David; Ewart, Andy (1984), The Guinness book of speed facts & feats, Guinness Superlatives
  • "318.598 for Vesco!", American Motorcyclist, American Motorcyclist Association, November 1978
  • "Record runs a family affair with Don and Rick Vesco", American Motorcyclist, American Motorcyclist Association: 86, April 1982

See also


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