Can the 400mph barrier be broken in Bolivia?

Holder of the FIM-accredited absolute motorcycle Land Speed World Record of 376.363mph (605.697km/h) set back in 2010, the TOP 1 Ack Attack Streamliner – with record-breaking rider Rocky Robinson at the controls – will attempt to push the record above the 400mph (643.738km/h) mark this week at the Bolivia Speed Trials (BST).

Part of the FIM Land Speed World Records (LSWR) discipline, the BST return to the calendar for the first time since 2023 and run from tomorrow on the Salar de Uyuni in the southwest of the South American nation.

The Salar de Uyuni is located three thousand six hundred and fifty-six metres above sea level on Bolivia’s high-altitude Altiplano plateau and, at over ten-thousand square kilometres, is the world’s largest salt flat. The course will be around thirty kilometres long and with the thinner air resulting in dramatically reduced aerodynamic drag at speed, organiser Mike Akatiff – who designed and built the TOP 1 Ack Attack Streamliner – feels conditions are favourable for a legitimate record attempt.

“We have some real high hopes for Bolivia with that bike and with the conditions there,” said the eighty-one-year-old avionics expert and former racer. “Rocky wants to be the first to go over four-hundred miles an hour and we’re there to support him one-hundred per cent.

“We had no fifth and sixth gear [in 2010] – it would not shift – so I don’t know how we got the record. We actually went four-hundred miles an hour right at the very end, but it’s only the timed record that counts. We have sensors on the bike that tell us the speed and we showed a little over four-hundred, but it doesn’t mean anything, it wasn’t recorded. That’s why we’re going back.”

Powered by twin Suzuki Hayabusa engines with a combined capacity of 2598cc, the TOP 1 Ack Attack Streamliner started life in a workshop in San Jose, California, in 2003. With Robinson at the controls it first broke the record in 2006, extending the previous figure – set in 1990 by Dave Campos – by just over twenty miles per hour to 342.797 (551.678km/h).

The record lasted just forty-eight hours before Chris Carr recorded a figure of 350.884mph (564.693km/h) in the BUB Seven Streamliner. In 2008 Robinson increased the record to 360.913mph (580.833km/h), but Carr snatched it back the following year after achieving 367.382 (591.244km/h) before Robinson established the current record in 2010.

Robinson is a former champion Speedway rider and the sixty-five-year-old’s riding skills have played an integral role in the TOP 1 Ack Attack Streamliner’s success, although even he could do nothing when, in 2007, the machine flipped at over 300mph (482.803km/h) and rolled sixteen times.

“People always bring up 2007,” he said. “I rolled it sixteen times and walked away. What I remember is wanting to get back in. That hasn’t changed – four-hundred is still our goal.”

Following editions in 2017, 2018 and 2023, this will be the fourth BST and after setting an open record three years ago with his 420hp turbine-powered MTT superbike, Jamie Williams is returning to the Salar de Uyuni to attempt two records.

Built around a Rolls Royce helicopter engine, Williams set a best recorded time of 134 mph (216 km/h) on the MTT superbike in 2023, although he did reach an unofficial speed approaching 180mph (289.682km/h) and is aiming to break 200mph (321.869km/h) this time around.

He will also attempt to set a new record of over 200mph with his 1350cc turbo-charged Suzuki Hayabusa-engined snowmobile, while Dan Smith will also be attempting to set a new FIM record on his turbo-charged Suzuki GSXR 750.

FIM rules state that to set a record, all machines must complete two runs within two hours with the average speed over both calculated to determine the final figure.