Glenn Curtiss sets an unofficial land-speed record on his V-8 motorcycle.
Aviation and motorcycling pioneer Glenn Curtiss designed and built the 269 cubic inch, F-head, V-8 motorcycle that sets an unofficial land-speed record of 136.36 miles per hour on January 24, 1907. The air-cooled engine was originally developed for use in zeppelins!
The forty horsepower engine was the two carb version of the Curtiss Model B-8 aircraft powerplant, one of thirteen engines listed in the May 1908 "Aerial and Cycle Motors" catalog. The engine allegedly weighed only 150 lbs and was offered for $1,200 but it didn't sell, in spite of the engine's notoriety from the speed record.
Pretty impressive for a guy who began his career as a Western Union bicycle messenger. In 1901 he developed an interest in motorcycles when internal combustion engines became more available. A year later Curtiss began manufacturing motorcycles with his own single-cylinder engines. His first motorcycle's carburetor was adapted from a tomato soup can containing a gauze screen to pull the gasoline up via capillary action. When E.H. Corson of the Hendee Manufacturing Company (manufacturers of Indian motorcycles) visited Hammondsport, New York, in July 1904, he was amazed (and annoyed) that the entire Curtiss motorcycle "enterprise" was located in the back room of the modest machine shop. Especially because Corson's motorcycles had just had their asses kicked the week before by "Hell Rider" Curtiss in an endurance race from New York to Cambridge, Maryland. "This is it?!", Corson was quoted as saying after seeing the garage for the first time.
Pretty impressive for a guy who began his career as a Western Union bicycle messenger. In 1901 he developed an interest in motorcycles when internal combustion engines became more available. A year later Curtiss began manufacturing motorcycles with his own single-cylinder engines. His first motorcycle's carburetor was adapted from a tomato soup can containing a gauze screen to pull the gasoline up via capillary action. When E.H. Corson of the Hendee Manufacturing Company (manufacturers of Indian motorcycles) visited Hammondsport, New York, in July 1904, he was amazed (and annoyed) that the entire Curtiss motorcycle "enterprise" was located in the back room of the modest machine shop. Especially because Corson's motorcycles had just had their asses kicked the week before by "Hell Rider" Curtiss in an endurance race from New York to Cambridge, Maryland. "This is it?!", Corson was quoted as saying after seeing the garage for the first time.
Glenn Curtiss remained "the fastest man in the world," the title the newspapers gave him for going faster than any vehicle, on land, sea or air, until 1911, when his record was broken by the Blitzen Benz automobile that topped-out at 141.7 mph. No motorcycle surpassed the record until 1930.
It has been suggested that the literary character Tom Swift was based on Curtiss. "Tom Swift and His Motorcycle", the first of over 100 books in the Tom Swift series, was published shortly after the V-8 record setting run.
The record setting V-8 motorcycle is now in the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum. The Air and Space museum lent it to the Guggenheim for the 1998 The Art of the Motorcycle exhibition in New York.
