A team of former Texas A&M University engineering students competed in the Bonneville Motorcycle Speed Trials that took place from Aug. 28 through Sept. 2, 2021, and returned home from the Bonneville Salt Flats with two national records made on their custom-designed electric land speed motorcycle.
Team mentor, Dr. Make McDermott, was a professor of dynamics in Mechanical Engineering at Texas A&M for over 40 years, running the Formula SAE program from 1998-2014. Make and his son, Scott, a local artist, previously set a record in a combustion class in 2007.
"Scott was our rider this year," says Team Speed Hertz member Cole Easterling. "This attempt was an homage to Dr. McDermott for all he has taught us and done for us over the years, both as students and working professionals."
Records are the average of two timed flying miles run from opposite directions, Easterling says. "We competed in the sub 150 kg AMA W (electric) class, both faired (APS) and unfaired (A)," he says. "We did nearly 167 mph faired and 141 mph unfaired, average, with a GPS-logged peak speed during the runs of 172.7 mph, and we're pretty sure she had more in her!"
"The previous class records, set by Purdue University in 2013, were approximately 113 mph and 114 mph," he says. "While they didn't register for the FIM-equivalent class to obtain an international record, the FIM records are ~110 mph, meaning Team Speed Hertz has, unofficially, the fastest sub 150 kg electric motorcycle in the world," Easterling says.
The bike was built here in Bryan and their effort was about as budget as it gets, utilizing mostly parts they had around from previous projects, including a motor from, essentially, a large golf cart, drone batteries, and a controller from a scrapped electric jeep conversion, Easterling says. "We're ecstatic with how well the bike performed and look forward to improving our record in the coming years!"
Courtesy of Speed Hertz
