John Vevers

[BONES]

Does anybody remember when John Vevers brought a streamliner to the salt.? It only did 91mph. Why? I spoke to him . he said the streamliner did close to 200 in testing. Did it have any major problems? hope the memories are still good. Bones.

[ben james]

hi bones, in 1991 it did 95 mph. i saw it in birdwood motor museum in 2004 on the way home from the salt. looked to be complete and in perfect nick. i think it was powered by a fzr1000 engine. be good to see it running again. it looked to be a fairly simple device, not to complicated.
ben

[Stayt`ie]

i spoke with john many years ago , he said that it had problems with streaching the standard cylinder studs could`nt keep head gaskets in it, why he didn`t use a set of high tensile studs that were avilable at the time would have cured that problem

[garth04]

I spent 3 weeks sitting in my car out on the salt waiting for the thing to pass.
The attempt was fraught with disaster and mis-management.
First thing that went wrong was his home made intake inflated like a balloon, then one run the chute deployed and he didnt know. (The 95.89 mph run)
I was using the old timing system at the time, which had a failing on motorcycles that ran over 125mph, and he got one run in that didnt trigger the timers, best guess about 150mph mark, but it had an engine drama on that pass melting the end off one spark plug, they had no spares, took a couple of days to get some from Adelaide, but when they started it up it had a misfire, motor was pulled down to reveal a burnt valve, but before they could get it all back together the rain came big time.
The bike was taken to the Birdwood mill and while they were unloading it, it fell off the truck damaging the frame (so I believe).
NOTE: by todays scrutineering standards it would not pass inspection, but the streamlined fiberglass body has great promise.

[Highlander]

John also built a twin engine bike in the late 80's or it might be the same bike. It had a square steel frame and two turbocharged FJ engines. He organised a lot of press at the time and was planning an attempt at the world record. That bike did attempt to run at Tippaburra or somewhere north NSW unsuccessfully. There should be articles in REVS and other bike mag's from the period I think about 85-86

Regards Darren

[BONES]

Garth04 do you remember it having any handling problems?A mate of mine,Jock Williams, was helping on the bike and became very frustrated with the whole setup. Jock said it steered well but the engine was no good. Any idear what would not pass inspection now? Thanks

[ben james]

ummm, what are you thinking about bones
ben

[Stayt`ie]

dont piss around bones, go straight to the man himself, last i know, that was quiet a few years ago, john was working in BP`s head office (i think) in melbourne,, good luck ...

[garth04]

Hey Bones,
Jock, man that name brings back memories, even one of the wash aways heading out to the lake was named after him, (Jocks trap) as he was driving a rental commodore and hit the wash away at over 100kmh. Just about tore the whole underside out of the car, along with pushing the floorpan up. Scared the crap out of Mike Davidson and he almost walked to the lake from there.
The only handling probs I remember with the bike was getting it to balance at slow speeds, but once it got going it seemed ok.
The frame wouldn't pass inspection today as it was square mild steel tubing 25x25mm spoggy welded together with bits of round and flat welded here and there, and I think there was something suspect with the front wheel, didn't have the correct speed rating for memory cause it was like a small trailer tire.
Hope this helps

[hawkwind racing]

Bones just build your own ,or import one from the states ,maybe a parttnership or syndicate ?? whatever way you go its big $$$
Gary