The World's Fastest Velocette is currently
en route to
Lake Gairdner in South Australia for an attempt to break 140mph...and that's going some for a pushrod single-cylinder machine. The bike built by Stuart Hooper has home-made streamlining and was developed with the help of a few friends, and his own funds. As he lives north of Brisbane, its a 2500km commute to the early March meeting of
Dry Lake Racers - serious dedication to set a record on a 50+ year old bike.
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| Burt Munro's 1936 618cc Velocette MSS |
Stuart's speeds have increased annually, from his first lake run of 133.46mph in 2009, which broke the 1971 record of
Burt Munro (of the
'World's Fastest Indian') - 132.37mph on his 1936 Velocette MSS at
Oreti Beach, New Zealand.
Munro's Velo was bored out to 618cc, and in truth, little of the machine was Velocette by the time he had finished with it! Stuart Hooper's machine is perhaps more recognizably a Velocette, using a fairly standard frame with
lengthened swingarm, and a less radically altered engine (at least externally), using using modern race tuning methods. Look carefully at the top photo - even the oil tank is original Velo, as are the forks, wheels, gearbox, etc. Nice work!
Let's hope for a video from Australia soon... Good luck Stuart!
