This is a new column that I hope to continue in the magazine; it will be in the formof an interview with people at the cutting edge of technology in the v-twin field. I have interviews planned with tire and wheel companies and hope to entice the Motor Company into granting interviews with their engineers to show how much science is going into the products that we all enjoy today.

Today’s interview is with Team Boarzilla represented by D&D Exhaust’s Dave Rash, rider and engine tuner John Minonno and engine tuner Bob Dowdy. Last year they set a land speed record of 225 mph in the 100-inch push rod blown fuel class. I will begin with a little background, as I learned so much in my short interview that I realized I would have to explain why salt flat records are so difficult to achieve.

We’ve all heard that the high altitude and salt create difficulties, but there are several factors that have to be balanced in order to achieve record-breaking performances.

First of all, drag racing Harleys running 90% nitro-methane fuel can achieve 600 or 700 horsepower. But in a six or seven second run, their engines only turn over about 600 times! (You can do this one in your head: 6000 revolutions per minute for a tenth of a minute are 600 revolutions). Getting large amounts of horsepower out of a v-twin using nitro generally won’t work on the seven mile run of a Bonneville attempt, much less on the required back up run. To get a record, a team must balance horsepower, aerodynamics, reliability and traction. The bikes that Team Boarzilla were after were the turbo-charged Suzuki Hayabusas that run at about 250 mph. Trying to do this with a pushrod twin and not an overhead cam multi-cyclinder is what our intrepid team set out to accomplish. And of course, when they started researching, making phone calls and asking around, not only had the required horsepower not been made before (without using 90% nitro in v-twins), many said it couldn’t be done.

Mark Barnett: Why did you decide to use an S&S Sportster-style motor and not a big twin?

Team Boarzilla: That was S&S’ idea. They talked us into it. They said that because of the pushrod angles and the unit construction of the engine and gearbox, the Sportster-style, S&S four cam pro-stock motor was the engine for us.

MB: And how about the decision to turbocharge?

Team B: When we started doing a little research into turbocharging, many people told us we were all a bunch of fools for even considering turbocharging because you couldn’t make it work right. Well, that was kind of like slapping us upside the head with a gauntlet.

MB: Were these drag racing people telling you this or salt flat people telling you this?

Team B: It was Harley-Davidson people in general. You can take a Hayabusa and because of the even firing pulses, you can turbocharge it. But the firing order of the v-twin doesn’t make this easy.

MB: But people turbocharge Harleys all the time.

Team B: But not at 20 to 30 pounds of boost. You can bolt on one at 10 or 12 pounds and not have any trouble. This year what we had at 21 pounds of boost was a consistent 361 horsepower at 6200 rpm. It’s definitely got a considerable amount of power now.

MB: How is this bike fueled?

Team B: What we use is a major management system off a V8 car; it controls the timing and fuel injection. In everything we’ve done to date, there’s been no experience from anyone else we could draw on. It’s just been a trial and error deal. Just see how it works and go from there.

MB: What other challenges did turbocharging present at so high of a boost level?

Team B: Plenum design. We are in the process of right now of designing that all over again. We pulled up all the information we could find and bought a few books. As far as the size of the plenum, we asked enough questions until we got some idea of what the proper size of it should be. Many people acted like they knew everything, but really didn’t know anything. The guy I bought the turbo from told me he didn’t have any idea what size turbo or plenum to use, but that he would work with us if we gave him data from our dyno runs.

MB: In what other areas did you search for power?

Team B: This year we found that kind of like making a good martini; just a touch of nitro in the alcohol made a ton of difference. We used 10% nitro this year. I spoke to a lot of fuel people. Nitro will break down the beads of alcohol into a finer mist so it atomizes better. That’s why we did that.

MB: So in the fuel class, you can run anything you want?

Team B: We can run anything: rocket fuel, nitrous, anything you’ve got. If you’ve got the cajones to put it in the tank, you can run it.

MB: When you mentioned to me earlier today that a university was consulted in the planning of this bike. Did they help with the motor or the aerodynamics of the bike?

Team B: What they worked on for us last year was the chassis and fairing. They had five graduate students who took this on as a project. They did a CFD fluid dynamics program on our bike and gave us their interpretation of what we needed to do to get the bike through the air better.

MB: Was that done in a wind tunnel or all in a computer?

Team B: That was done all in a computer at the University of Texas at Arlington.