Big Red | |
Manufacturer: | Don Vesco |
Assembly: | c. 1969 |
Successor: | "Silver Bird" streamliner |
Class: | Speed record streamliner motorcycle |
Engine: | Two, 350 cc two-stroke, two-cylinder Yamaha motors |
Frame: | Monocoque body (drop tank) |
Brakes: | Parachute assist |
Length: | 5486 mm |
Big Red was the machine with which American Don Vesco took the motorcycle land-speed record,, on September 17, 1970, at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.
At Bonneville Speed Week in 1969, Vesco took Big Red to a speed of 365kph. The following year, with the five and a half meter long motorcycle built from an aircraft drop tank, he undertook several more attempts to break the 395.363km/h record set by Robert Leppan in 1966. He succeeded in setting a new record of 405.25km/h. 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.