The Gillette Mach 3 Challenger

This project & the bike started off as project "Maximum Impulse", however this changed when I was fortunate enough to secure Gillette as Title Sponsor. This World Land Speed Record streamlined motorcycle was designed and built as a pure rocket propelled vehicle. Capable of carrying three hydrogen peroxide hybrid rockets and incorporating many innovations, the Gillette Mach 3 Challenger set an outright British Land speed record at 216.55 mph using just one rocket, & just one year later in 1999 on the greater expanse of the Bonneville Salt Flats I became the fastest ever on two wheels at an average of 332.877 mph with a peak speed of 365 mph still using just two of the available 3 rockets. (The average speed has now been surpassed) With metal wheels and three rockets the bike was clearly capable of its design performance- an official average speed for the flying Mile of well over 400 mph.

For the full story of our attempt at the world record the BBC produced a 50 minute TV documentary as part of their "The Mission" series, titled "Fastest Man on Two Wheels". I don't think this is available as a video but it has been shown on Sky, Discovery & other TV media several times, & of course on BBC.

Here's a brief run down of the project: The goal was to design, build, & demonstrate the worlds fastest two wheeler, using Hybrid rocket propulsion. I jointly designed the bike with good friend Andy Scott. Andy took the lead on certain aspects of the design inc. wheels, suspension, data logging, etc, whilst I took care of all propulsion, cockpit, bodywork, and so on. The design was a true joint effort with some additional input from others. I then built the bike including all machining, welding, fabrication etc and by working very long hours construction was complete in just 18 months.

Static engine test. 1700Lbs of thrust, check out those Mach diamonds!

Prior to paint work in the full size wind tunnel at MIRA

Following various testing inc. static engine & full size wind tunnel tests, which confirmed all functions were operating as designed, we headed off to Pendine sands in Wales for our first powered runs, everything performed flawlessly except the rider! - 'ME'. We soon realised that we had grossly underestimated the steep learning curve associated with riding a streamlined two wheeler.

Trainer bike, nicknamed "Muttley's Liner"

So we decided to build a "Trainer bike", this amounted to a crude but functional piston powered version which I could spend hours riding up & down an air strip until it became almost like "Riding a bike", in recognition of Andy Scott's input we nicknamed it "Muttley's Liner."

Following our trip to Pendine we also began to form a group of regular reliable helpers. This was the start of what became a true team effort.

With this newly acquired team & skill to ride we headed for the beech & then the air strips for some more powered runs in the real thing. From that point on our biggest battle was with the weather. We needed exceptionally calm wind conditions, not often found on a British air field, & rarer still at Pendine sands, but we waited, & testing continued virtually without fault with small but continuous increases in speed, until on 15th October 98 at Elvington Air field in Yorkshire the British record was in the bag! During this period Gillette had joined our list of sponsors as "Title Sponsor" so with the mass of media interest generated around our British record I was able to secure further sponsorship from Gillette and almost all our sponsors for an attempt on the American held World record.

Blasting up Elvington Air strip to a 264MPH peak & a British record!

We arrived at Bonneville salt flats to be greeted by a flood at the access point! but fortunately some reasonable salt had been found. We were sharing the salt for the first week with American Dennis Manning, who holds a superb event called the 'BUB meet' every year for two wheelers to go for various class & outrite records. With surface conditions pretty poor our solid Aluminium wheels were breaking through the soft surface, causing "trammlining" - where one wheel tries to exactly follow the other or you just hit the groves from the last run, we had no choice but to run on rubber tyred wheels. This forced us to cap the speed for fear of destroying the tyres from centrifugal force, our GoodYear Eagles were the best tyres available to us, rated at 300MPH with surprisingly little margin beyond that, the record stood at 322 average!

We made 7 powered runs during our 2 weeks on the salt, with some technical & some weather related difficulties, but ultimately it was a combination of a time-keeper's error & failure of the rear tyre that meant we had to settle for "World's fastest one way" & not the official 2 way average required for the Record. The centrifugal force had caused the tyres to grow to an extent that the rear had left the rim and caused a deflation, a bit iffy on two wheels at 365MPH! The massive radial growth of these tyres had also caused us to make several on the spot crude modifications to the bike to provide clearance (remember we were supposed to be on solid Ali wheels) which had also compromised safety, something I was unhappy about.

View from the rear of Gillette Challenger, (camera is mounted in the middle bay reserved for the third rocket) top rocket at full chat, bottom rocket just shutting down, speed in excess of 300MPH!

Having returned from Bonneville with time to reflect I was very pleased with our acheivements. Of course I wanted that record but on the salt flats for the first time on a wet soft surface we had "The Worlds fastest one way run " ever recorded by the FIM. One has to remember very few projects of this nature even get off the drawing board, even fewer ever get built & almost none ever get a crack at a world record. We had acheived almost all I set out to do. My ultimate satisfaction comes from the engineering of these projects, we made a total of 21 powered runs throughout the project, all exactly on target as planned & without taking unnecessary risks. We had successfully demonstrated the worlds fastest two wheeler, kept to our deadlines, and all on a total budget no more than the cost of a supercar. The bike is now on display at the National Motorcycle Museum, Solihull, Birmingham, where the Boost Palouste can also be seen.

I will attempt another land speed record at a later date but at this stage I am unsure if it will be on two or four wheels, watch this space!

The video above shows run 5 on the salt flats, this was the first run we made averaging over 300MPH, with a peak of 335MPH. Initially you will see the the bike being towed for a short distance followed by a release signal and the tow truck swerving off line, the bike is then coasting at about 40MPH during which time I retract the skids and await the "In zone" signal that tells me I have reached the optimum position relative to the timming traps to ignite the rocket motor, take a look at the speed the mountains in the background are passing by!