 July
1, 2005
Amity, Oregon
I am obviously very stoked about breaking the world
ATV land speed record. By having the Guiness accreditation,
it provides me exclusive bragging rights to say I am
"King of the Hill", at least until the next
guy comes along and breaks my record. But, as much as
I would like to take personal credit, the truth of the
matter is that a feat like this can't be accomplished
without a ton of help. That help came in the form of
the following.
The OEM 660R engine was amped up to incredible power
levels by the good folks at ALBA Action Sports
and the suspension was upgraded by their race partner,
ELKA. In and of itself, the proven
ALBA motor and transmission mods enabled the ALBA 3.0
Raptor to break 100MPH on it's own and sustain that
speed for extended periods!
Fullbore Innovations and Powroll
of Oregon were instrumental in designing and developing
the unique body and frame geometry that allowed us to
hit and hold these speeds without killing myself. Their
one-off steering gometry changes permitted us to stay
on track with very little risk of oversteering.
Then there's the rocket. Yes, I am guilty of playing
with various combustive materials to include an old
JATO and some hobby rocket motors, but it was the hybrid
rocket motor that allowed us to hit the necessary speeds
to break the record. I won't kid anybody in admitting
that we struggled with some technical issues that had
us baffled. After all, who would be nuts enough to install
a rocket motor on an ATV swingarm. To that particular
end, I owe much of our success to Ky Michaelson,
the ORIGINAL Rocket Man (see http://www.the-rocketman.com/
). He learned of our plight and unselfishly provided
the technical insight we needed to take our motor to
the next level. I want to express my heartfelt gratitude
for his help and creative support.
I also want to thank Trailtech for
their exceptional products that helped us remain a production
ATV (in a sense) with fully functional lighting that
still cut the air resistance much better than oem. Thanks
EVS for providing us the gear that
protected me from any potential mishaps. And thanks
to Yukon, Hinson,
Cycle Sports, Cycle Country,
TVI Power and Sports, Davison
NAPA, Robinson Welding, Marion
Auto and Ray Greenleaf. You
folks helped make a dream a reality.
Terry Wilmeth
- Rocketman
- Rocket Raptor
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