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How Mike Grainger Took The European Speed Record
The most astonishing aspect of the British and European Motorcycle Speed Record is not so much the sheer speed involved, as the fact that a street legal road bike held it. At Elvington airfield, York, on March 21st 1996, Plymouth motorcycle dealer Mike Grainger put his turbocharged ZZR 1100 Kawasaki through the timing lights at a speed of 209.05 mph.
The previous record, set by a purpose-built rotary-engineered Norton streamliner, was set at 200.08 in 1991. Mike's achievement was all the more remarkable on several other counts. It was windy and bitterly cold that day and a faulty ignition box prevented the Kawasaki from reaching its true potential. With only a 3/4 mile run-up to a measured quarter mile (0.4 km), Elvington is not really long enough for any machine to achieve its true maximum speed. In effect, it had to sprint from rest to over 210 mph in around 1300 yards.
In order to qualify as an official record, a machine must achieve two runs in opposite directions, the mean (average) of the two being the recognised speed. The two runs were timed at 330.67 km/h (205.47 mph) and 342.40 km/h (212.76 mph) respectively, some way below the 357 km/h (222 mph) Mike achieved on the same machine a year earlier during a one-way run at Bruntingthorpe, Leicestershire.
Since Mike Grainger's Kawasaki hurtled through the Elvington timing lights in 1996 at least two rocket-powered motorcycles have made attempts on the record. Both failed. On the short strips and runways available in Europe, 200 mph plus is no easy matter. There is nowhere available over 2 miles in length, which includes the braking distance. The European record cannot be compared to the likes of Bonneville where there is several miles and a different surface.
Reaching such speeds requires prodigious horsepower. The 16-valve four-cylinder Kawasaki is overbored to 1108 cc and runs a Garret T25 turbocharger running at 21 psi. A simple but effective fuel injection system replaces the Kawasaki's carburettors. Power output is comfortably in excess of 300 bhp. To help the engine cope with the enormous stresses involved, it uses 116-octane fuel, plus 50:50 water/methanol injection to cool the piston crowns.
Engine builder Brian Capper painstakingly built the engine, with lots of special metal treatments, special pistons and con-rods and improved lubrication. Since 300 horsepower tears the standard Kawasaki transmission to pieces, a special "Orient Express" centrifugal lock-up clutch, like that commonly used on drag bikes, was also preferred. The power this motorcycle produces is simply awesome. Crack open the throttle in top gear at 150 mph and despite a lengthened swing-arm, the front wheel paws the air.
A standard ZZ-R1100, capable of over 170 mph, feels utterly flat in comparison. "I used it on the road too, it was taxed and insured," admitted Mike, as though discussing commuting, his soft Devon burr disguising the terminal speed psychosis beneath. "When I needed to get out of the office and clear my head I would take it for a spin." So, a word of advice: if you should see a ZZ-R next time you're in Devon, don't be tempted to play. It could well be the British and European speed record-holder.