Cw 25 Years Ago September, 1966
CW 25 YEARS AGO September, 1966
ROUNDUP
IF THE COVER OF THIS EDITION didn't spark your enthusiasm, you needed to be cheeked for a pulse. The photograph, a nice panned-action shot, showed an attractive couple at speed on a BMW R69S complete with Earles fork. CW's testing revealed that the Beemer sauntered through the quarter-mile in all of 16.2 seconds.
If the BMW didn't suit your fancy, there was plenty of alternative hardware in this issue. A 2$0cc G reeves ( 'hal 1 enger—a tough little dirtbike with a cast front dowmtube and a leading-link fork— was tested, a Hodaka Ace 90 was sampled, and a pair of good-looking Grifos, featuring Italian-built chassis and Triumph engines, also got the once-over.
Besides the tests and riding impressions. there was additional reason for enthusiasm. The Dutch I 1, with Hailwood beating Agostini in the 35()cc event, and the Belgian GP. which Ago won after 11 ail wood's 1 Ion da was hit with gearbox trouble, were reported on.
Maybe best of all. though, was a scant, single-page piece detailing the exploits of a man know n as The Michigan Madman. That would be the one-and-only E.J. Potter, w ho in the 1960s ran a dragbike powered b\ a fuel-injected, smallblock Chevy V-Eight.
How quick? Mid-10s, many seconds from the best times of today’s top dragbikes. Right in keeping, though, with racing specialists of all eras who will try anything to go just a little faster.
—Jon F. Thompson
