DragWaye (1961-1982)

There's a great article about this machine by Martin Squires, complete with his own drawings, in The Vintagent, here: https://thevintagent.com/2018/04/04/motorcycle-specials-drag-waye/
It was developed over a twenty year period. Briefly, the first prototype built by Clive Waye was powered by a Norton 500 single!. Thereafter the DragWaye was powered by 4-cylinder Volkswagen engined turned sideways and supercharged! initially it was sleeved down to 998cc, then grew to 1500cc and blew up, then settled at 1300cc and ran a 9.3 second standing quarter mile, with a terminal speed above 150mph! The first rider was Howard German, but its greatest success, after development, was in the hands of Dave Lecoq. Then it was 'retired' for more than 20 years but revived in 2016. PNB

DragWaye (1961-1982)

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Love the exposed cable steering! When this first appreared I assumed, being young and optimistic, that it was properely engineered. Now, looking at this more detailed photo, I begin to suspect that whoever built it may not have been a vehicle engineer at all...

Pity the guy holding the sheet can't be seen, it would have made a perfect "Caption competition" - "Can you see where you're going"? "Only too clearly"

Engineers were involved!

I've added a link above to an excellent article in The Vintagent about the history and development of this machine. Some fascinating details about this surprising record-holder here:
https://thevintagent.com/2018/04/04/motorcycle-specials-drag-waye/

Thanks for that

Very interesting. Good to see that it did win some sprints. There must have been interesting conversations between Mr. Waye and various drag racers... There are a number of other layouts that could have been copied from the slingshot racers and it would be interesting to see how they worked out. Electric power might now allow a simpler and possibly more optimised mass distribution as the major mass, the batteries, could be placed anywhere suitable. Remarkable that it pulled wheelies. It's a pity that other versions of this approach haven't appeared in drag racing since - or maybe they just haven't been reported. Electric power works well in drag racing, Immense power can be delivered for very short periods from quite moderate battery packs, but I guess the lack of spectacle (Flames, smoke, noise etc.) is an obstacle.