Rider’s a tick off magic 200
Tweaked Kawasaki carries HB man to a land speed mark, but the overall record needs a perfect back-up run
There is perhaps nothing as scary or as thrilling at the same time as achieving a land speed record on a motorcycle. With no chassis or panels to surround the rider, no padding, no bumpers and no air bags, the adrenaline rush surely defies description and, in the tradition of legendary Kiwi motorcycling pioneer Burt Munro before him, Hawke’s Bay man Walter Rands-Trevor, who escaped Auckland 21⁄2 years ago for a rural Esk Valley lifestyle, certainly now knows that feeling intimately.
On March 20, on Goudies Rd near Reporoa, the 44-year-old Protecta Insurance product manager New Zealand set the 1050cc flying quartermile land speed record of 321.8km/h — about as close he could get to the “magical goal” of 200 miles per hour (321.869km/h).
“I achieved the 200 miles per hour pass but not the 200 miles per hour average, so that’s the aim for me next time,” he said. “I will definitely keep working on the bike and keep chipping away at it.”
It was the first time a traditionally-aspirated vehicle, car or bike, had been over 200 miles per hour on New Zealand soil, without the help of turbo-charging or a supercharger, he said.
It broke a record which had stood for 28 years, but there’s more to come, possibly at a New Zealand Land Speed Records Association event understood to be planned for February next year, at Goudies Rd, the event venue which has about 7km of straight, flat tarseal.
Rands-Trevor grew up riding bikes on the dirt roads and tracks of Great Barrier Island, before moving into Auckland to work.
But his affair with the higher speeds and records started when partner Pippa Harris, from Wairoa, was heading with family to the famed Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, where Chris Harris had set a car speed record in 2006, and where Munro set his under 1000cc world record of 295.453km/h (183.59 miles per hour) in 1967 (a story featured in movie The World’s Fastest Indian).
The family, now based in Bay View, had often told him there was “a space in the container if I wanted to chuck a bike in there”.
“It snowballed from there,” he said. “I eventually managed to source a Kawasaki ZX10 at a good price and realised that, with a few tweaks, it could be competitive.”
The first bike he took over in 2012 was a 2008 model.
“I had done as much development as I could with that bike,” he said. “Then I got the newer-generation bike, the 2011 model Kawasaki that I’m still running today.”
He’s been doing events in New Zealand for quite a while and competed at every event at Goudies Rd since the formation of the New Zealand Landspeed Association. He has also fronted at the East-West Sprints in South Wairarapa. The record run two months ago was the first time the team had combined with Motorcycling New Zealand to have a crack at ratifying national records.
“Prior to this it hasn’t been official and really just for bragging rights,” he said. “My bike probably only puts out as much power as the latest generation bikes and it’s had a huge amount of work done to it, tweaking it over the years.
“I enjoy doing the work on the bike as much as anything else, particularly working in the shed, mates around with a couple of beers and pizza.
“But the proof of the pudding is in the eating and getting those speeds higher. You do have to build up to it a little bit when you head out onto the tarseal.
I will definitely keep working on the bike and keep chipping away at it. Walter Rands-Trevor
“For me, I’ve been doing it for a few years now, but you do remain very conscious of your surroundings and the potential for it all to go pear-shaped.
“As with all riding, you’re trying to look as far down the course as you can. It’s all coming at you pretty quick.”
The record has now been ratified by motorcycle sport’s governing body in New Zealand, Motorcycling New Zealand.
The previous record for the 1050cc flying quarter-mile was 187.96 miles per hour, set on December 4, 1993, by Christchurch’s Jon White, riding a Britten motorcycle.
Missing the 200 miles per hour goal by just 0.069km/h is just one of the frustrations, with conditions needing to be “pretty much perfect”. Conditions at Bonneville have been right on just two of his five trips there, and Reporoa events have also been called off on at least one of his trips to the magnet-point between Taupo¯ and Rotorua. It’s also not something where he can prepare on the open highway, with speed limits of 100km/h.
Simple answer to the obvious question, of whether he has ever been ticketed for speeding, is: “Yes.”