Return of the Nitrous Norton (2016)

Landspeedracer said:

Ah the perils of nitrous, I stopped tearing up £20 notes chasing more and more power with melted valves, cylinder heads, pistons and spark plugs and instead took the easy route - turbo. I wish you well. Would you be better served running on tarmac? A friend of mine went to Bonneville with his nitrous Hayabusa and struggled to go over 200mph in the umpteen miles he was able to have as a run up, whereas I clocked 213 at a standing start mile.

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Probably would be significantly better on tarmac at sea level. Unfortunately, we no longer have that option here on the West Coast. We used to have the Mojave Mile events (which I never managed to run), using the runway at the Mojave Air and Space Port, but it was killed after the airport denied approval for use after the last event in 2018. It was more than a mile of paved track, and the fastest bike run was 274.8 mph in 2011. The choices we have here in the West are the El Mirage dry lake bed and the Bonneville Salt Flats. There is still an event on tarmac on the East Coast. The Loring Timing Association runs on a 2.6 mile runway in Maine, but that's a 6,600 mile round trip from my place. There is also the Texas Mile event, and we might consider that in the future, but it's still a 3,000+ mile round trip.

Ken

Ah, that would have been Bill Warner RIP, I think he is still the only rider over 270. Although our Guy Martin is getting towards it. The guy who bought my old turbo bike has done 250. I did an unverified 235 but gave up racing when a friend of mine had a tyre delaminate at over 200 in front of me and his wife while we were stood watching him. I had already run my last time for the day as conditions were deteriorating. I decided there and then that enough was enough, I’d walked away from a 192mph crash a few months earlier and the writing was on the wall.

Yep, that’s one of the problems with the USA, there’s too much travelling. I used to get annoyed just doing a 200 mile trip for an event. El Mirage is at altitude from memory, another name I recall from my past is Maxton, is that still run?

we had a few venues to choose from, all former RAF bases, Woodbridge, Elvington, were the common ones, Bruntingthorpe was the longest but not used for events - I went along it one time when I was being featured by a magazine, but while its longer at well over 2 miles its extremely bumpy. The best was always Woodbridge as it kept well maintained as an emergency runway for the space shuttle. Elvington is the one most in use but has a number of vocal residents who always complain about the noise - well why do they buy a house and live so close? Move away!