Big Red was the machine with which American Don Vesco took the

motorcycle land-speed record The motorcycle land-speed record is the fastest speed achieved by a motorcycle on land. It is standardized as the speed over a course of fixed length, averaged over two runs in opposite directions. AMA National Land Speed Records requires two pas ...

, , on September 17, 1970, at the

Bonneville Salt Flats The Bonneville Salt Flats are a densely packed salt pan in Tooele County in northwestern Utah, United States. A remnant of the Pleistocene Lake Bonneville, it is the largest of many salt flats west of the Great Salt Lake. It is public land ma ...

in Utah. At Bonneville

Speed Week Bonneville Speedway (also known as the Bonneville Salt Flats Race Track) is an area of the Bonneville Salt Flats northeast of Wendover, Utah, that is marked out for motor sports. It is particularly noted as the venue for numerous land speed reco ...

in 1969, Vesco took Big Red to a speed of . The following year, with the five and a half meter long motorcycle built from an aircraft

drop tank In aviation, a drop tank (external tank, wing tank or belly tank) is used to describe auxiliary fuel tanks externally carried by aircraft. A drop tank is expendable and often capable of being jettisoned. External tanks are commonplace on modern ...

, he undertook several more attempts to break the record set by Robert Leppan in 1966. He succeeded in setting a new record of . A month later, the record was broken again: Cal Rayborn reached an averaged in two runs in opposite directions. The bike is now an exhibit of the

Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum Barber Motorsports Park is an racing facility in Birmingham, Alabama. It was built by George W. Barber, and includes the Barber Vintage Motorsport Museum. It has been the site of the IndyCar Series' Grand Prix of Alabama since 2010. The Annu ...

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External links

* Motorcycles of the United States Land speed record motorcycles Feet forwards motorcycles Streamliner motorcycles Motorcycles designed by Don Vesco {{motorcycle-stub