10 Fast Facts About Burt Munro’s Land Speed Record

Burt Munro has gone down in the annals of history. Credit goes to his 1920 Indian Scout that he worked on and modified, always using home-made parts, for more than 20 years to make it go faster and faster. His dream was to attend the Bonneville Speed Week in order to give the Munro Special (as his steed was called) to satisfy his lust for speed. That he was successful is now a matter of record and recognition of his achievements was enhanced with the 2005 film, The World’s Fastest Indian, starring Anthony Hopkins as Burt Munro. It’s a story of dogged persistence and challenging authority, making both Burt and his motorcycle heroes of speed. He led a long and colorful life, but the route to the top was never easy and everything was done on a shoestring. Let’s check out how all this came to be.

In order to give you the most up-to-date and accurate information possible, the data used to compile this article was sourced from various manufacturer websites and other authoritative sources, including 1964.co.nz/burt-munro, motorcyclemuseum.org/halloffame and www.cycleworld.com

10 Burt Munro’s Early Life

Herbert James Munro was born in 1899, in Invercargill, New Zealand, to a farming family. From an early age, he was fascinated by speed, first riding the family’s fastest horses, before being captivated by early cars and motorcycles. He hoped to serve in the First World War, but it ended before he could enlist. He first took part in Speedway races in New Zealand, although the Great Depression forced him to return to the family farm before he took a position as a motorcycle mechanic and salesman. He then recommenced his motorcycle racing career and became a force in the New Zealand racing scene.

9 The Indian Scout

Munro bought a 1920 Indian Scout in the early 1920s. It was the 627th Scout to be built at the Indian factory in Springfield, Massachusetts, and had a top speed of 55mph. This was never going to be enough for Munro, so he set about modifying it in his spare time, while still working full-time as a motorcycle salesman.

He would complete a full day’s work, then work all night in his home workshop on his Indian. Because there was very little money to buy parts, Munro made his and even the tools to work on the bike. Endlessly inventive, he would cast parts in old tins and make his own barrels, pistons, or flywheels. In his workshop was a shelf littered with broken parts, with the inscription ‘Offerings To The God Of Speed’. With constant efforts, the Indian Scout’s engine grew steadily from its original 600cc to an eventual 950cc. Having no access to a dynamometer, the true power output was never revealed, although it would have been a huge hike over the original’s 11 horsepower!

8 Being Inventive

Munro’s inventiveness knew no bounds. In the late 1940s, he quit work to devote all his time to improving the Indian, as well as developing his own skills in the workshop. He never did anything the easy way, largely due to lack of money. The connecting rods inside the engine were carved out of a Ford truck axle and took him five months to make. They lasted for over 20 years, though, and survived all his Bonneville speed attempts.

He discovered that old cast iron gas pipes (that had ‘seasoned’ underground for years) were perfect when melted to make both pistons and barrels. He converted the Indian’s V-Twin engine from side valves to overhead valves, carrying out all the design and machining work himself. Likewise, Munro made the camshafts (filing the profiles by hand), just like virtually every part on the bike himself. The streamlined body shell included.

7 Early Records

Starting in the 1940s, Munro set a number of New Zealand speed records. The first came in 1940 when he set an open road record of 120.8mph; that record held for 12 years. In 1957, he set a New Zealand beach record of 132.38mph. However, by the late-1950s, the New Zealand speed courses were becoming too short for Burt’s ambitions, and he knew the bike had more speed in it if he could find somewhere long enough to run it.

In 1957, he made his first (non-riding) trip to the Bonneville Speed Week held at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, U.S.A. From that moment forward, Munro knew that this was where he could realize his speed ambitions. Now all he had to do was work out how to get there.

6 The First Bonneville Attempt

By 1962, Burt Munro had saved enough money, while friends also donated to the cause, to make his first trip to Bonneville. Both he and the bike made the trip on a rusting cargo ship, Burt earning his passage by working as the ship’s cook. Once in the States, he bought an ancient Nash station wagon in Los Angeles for $90 and set off for Utah.

He was in for a shock when he arrived, being told he was not eligible to run because he had not pre-registered (he had never had to do that in New Zealand and just didn’t think about it before leaving NZ). Fortunately, friends made on previous trips, including Rollei Free, who had set a speed record on his Vincent Black Lightning while wearing nothing but his swimming trunks in 1948, convinced the organizers to let Munro run. Despite their suspicion of the home-made Indian streamliner and some of the engineering solutions, Munro got his shot.

5 Bonneville Speed Records

That first trip in 1962 resulted in Munro’s first recognized U.S. speed record, when he covered the measured mile at 178.97mph. He captured the 883cc class record using an 850cc version of his engine. He would go on to set records in 1966 (1,000cc class record of 168.07mph) and 1967 (see below), by which time he was a real celebrity among his fellow competitors and spectators alike. In qualifying for the 1967 races, he set a one-way record of 190.07mph at Bonneville, the fastest-ever recorded speed on an Indian and the one that gave the name to the movie.

4 1967: The Last Time At Bonneville

By 1967, Burt Munro was 68 years old, and his Indian Streamliner was 47 years old, although not much of the original bike remained by this time. For much of his life, Munro had suffered from heart problems and these only got worse as he got older: by rights, he shouldn’t have been doing anything as dangerous as attempting to set land speed records. However, it was this last visit to Bonneville that would cement Munro’s place in history. Over the course of the two, one-way runs required to set a record, Burt and the Munro Special set a new record for under-1,000cc engines (the Munro Special was running a 950cc engine) of 184.087mph, with an unofficial one-way speed of over 205mph. Fifty-five years later, the record still stands.

3 Not All Plain Sailing

Also, in 1967, Munro suffered a crash at top speed which may have had an effect on his calling time on his speed career. In a New Zealand motorcycle magazine, Burt was quoted as saying:

At the Salt in 1967, we were going like a bomb. Then she got the wobbles just over halfway through the run. To slow her down, I sat up. The wind tore my goggles off and the blast forced my eyeballs back into my head. I couldn’t see a thing. We were so far off the black line that we missed a steel marker stake by inches. I put her down – a few scratches all around but nothing much else.

2 Recognition

In 2006, Burt Munro was inducted into the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame for his achievements on his Indian. Many speed kings build their own machines on or in which to compete, but it is unlikely that any of them did it in the manner of Munro. Working out of a shed in which he lived as well as working and making all his own parts.

In 2023, Munro was inducted into the Sturgis Motorcycle Museum and Hall of Fame and, of course, he was long ago inducted into the New Zealand Motorcycling Hall of Fame. At the Sturgis induction, Gary Gray, vice president of racing, technology, and service for Indian Motorcycle said:

Burt’s a legend. His accomplishments… trials and tribulations, inspire our racing efforts today. While it may be overdue, it’s quite an achievement for Burt to be enshrined into the Sturgis Motorcycle Museum Hall of Fame, and we’re incredibly proud and grateful to celebrate Burt Munro not just today, but every day.

1 Burt Munro: Death

In 1975, Munro lost his racing license and he was reluctantly forced to hang up his helmet. He had suffered from angina since the late 1950s, but that never stopped him. In 1977, he had a stroke and was admitted to hospital. Sadly, he found that his coordination had diminished and realized his days of riding motorcycles were over.

He desperately wanted his motorcycles to remain in New Zealand, so he sold them to his friend, Norman Hayes. And they remain in New Zealand to this day. Burt died of natural causes in 1978, aged 78 years. In 2014, 36 years after his death, he was posthumously awarded a 1967 record of 296.2593 km/h (184.087 mph) after his son John noticed a calculation error by AMA at that time.