Land-Speed World Record Smashed
On September 26, 2008, the awesome “ACK Attack” motorcycle streamliner set a new land-speed record in a private meet out at the Bonneville Speed Flats in Nevada. The 350.885mph record was beat by 10.029 seconds. Doesn’t seem like much, but just think of something traveling 350 mph for an additional 10 seconds – it’s a looooong time. The new record was set at 360.913 mph, pending ruling by the governing body of the FIM.
Owner and designer Mike Akatiff and his ACK Attack team had broken the speed record two years before (only to be beat two days later, but still).
Both records (for the car class and the motorcycle class) were broken out at Bonneville. The Burkland Streamliner (built in 1996 by Tom Burkland and the Burkland family) was the record-breaker in the car class.
That same record-breaking car (and driver) had a near-death experience when the parachute didn’t deploy as it hurled toward the end of the track. When referring to some close calls that happened at the raceway including the parachute’s non-deployment, Scott Evans says, “The weekend wasn’t without hiccups.” I’ll SAY!
Now that we know that they can go that fast, the question is…How much faster can they go?