Venturi have been building a motorcycle in a shroud of secrecy – an electric one – that could even put a Grand Prix racing car through its paces. Venturi’s two wheeler and Grand Prix racing cars both clock well over 300 kms per hour with ease. Of course if you give the Monaco firm Venturi, four wheels to play with then even 500 km/h becomes a breeze. As long ago as 2016, on the white expanse of the Bonneville (U.S.) salt lake, the Venturi VBB-3, a rocket-like electric racing car, smashed the land speed record – approaching 550 kmh.
On a two-wheeled motorcycle, 350 km/h would do more than meet Venturi’s next world-record breaking attempt. In fact, it could have happened this July in Bolivia were it not for the Covid19 pandemic.
The exact target for a world record is 330km/h. That would be just enough to erase the existing record of Ryuji Tsuruta of 329 km/h. July is the best month for the sand to be dry enough and compact enough to create the ideal surface on the salt lake of Uyuni, in the Bolivian heights, 3,700 meters above sea level. As well as a focus on perfect engineering, which is one of Venturi’s trademarks, aerodynamics make all the difference in record-breaking attempts – which is why their racing vehicles often look more like torpedos.
And then you need a world-champion pilot, with the heart of a stuntman, brave enough and “smart-crazy” enough to master an oscillating part-unruly-beast, part-rocket. And it’s those oscillations where the motorcycle loses control and that could throw the pilot off at high speeds that Venturi is working at dampening. To beat the record they need a stable run with the pilot Max Biaggi to be able to hold onto the machine as it flies along like a jet.
The machine has a name. It is the Voxan Wattman which has an aeronautical steel chassis designed by Sacha Lakic.
Trial Runs
In Châteauroux the Wattman has just been put through a series of tests on an airport runway four kilometers long.
Final Tuning
Now, the Voxan Wattman is back in the Venturi workshops. It will be taken apart and further improved, after a thorough analysis of the recent track tests. Reportedly, Franck Balder, technical director of the Venturi group, will do track tests on a monthly basis to be ready to attack the world record in 2021.
Twelve months to go to make the final touches to their futuristic motorcycle which has a real chance of making history as the fastest motorcycle on earth.
