Difficult: Setting a land-speed record at the Bonneville Salt Flats.
Impossible: Setting a land-speed record at the Bonneville Salt flats 36 years after you've passed away.
And yet, here we are, in the year 2014, and a new record has appeared in the most recent tally at Bonneville, showing one Burt Munro holding the AMA Land Speed Record in Class S.A. 1000, at 184.087 miles per hour, set aboard a custom 953cc 1920 Indian streamliner motorcycle. If you were to look at last year's list of records, you'd also see Burt Munro, except that the speed listed would say 183.586 mph.
No big deal, he just beat his old record, right? Not so fast – Munro passed away some 36 years ago, and the official certificate issued for the new record is held by Munro's son, John. The explanation boils down to the use of a calculator. It seems the AMA made an error when it originally calculated the average speed of Munro's two timed runs. John, the son, noticed the discrepancy, pointed it out to the AMA and now holds further proof of his father's high-speed exploits from way back in the year 1967.
Sure, it's little more than a rounding error, but it nonetheless reminds us how perseverance can stand the test of time, even aboard what most might see as an outdated relic; that relic, of course, being The World's Fastest Indian.
Impossible: Setting a land-speed record at the Bonneville Salt flats 36 years after you've passed away.
And yet, here we are, in the year 2014, and a new record has appeared in the most recent tally at Bonneville, showing one Burt Munro holding the AMA Land Speed Record in Class S.A. 1000, at 184.087 miles per hour, set aboard a custom 953cc 1920 Indian streamliner motorcycle. If you were to look at last year's list of records, you'd also see Burt Munro, except that the speed listed would say 183.586 mph.
No big deal, he just beat his old record, right? Not so fast – Munro passed away some 36 years ago, and the official certificate issued for the new record is held by Munro's son, John. The explanation boils down to the use of a calculator. It seems the AMA made an error when it originally calculated the average speed of Munro's two timed runs. John, the son, noticed the discrepancy, pointed it out to the AMA and now holds further proof of his father's high-speed exploits from way back in the year 1967.
Sure, it's little more than a rounding error, but it nonetheless reminds us how perseverance can stand the test of time, even aboard what most might see as an outdated relic; that relic, of course, being The World's Fastest Indian.
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