With sleds at the core of every imaginable racing venue including snocross, pavement drag racing and watercross, it seems odd there hasn’t been more focus on setting a snowmobile land speed record. Although there have been unofficial attempts made over the past several years, the elusive 200mph goal line has not been officially crossed yet.
A group out of Quebec, G-Force Performance and Gagne Lessard Sports, working with Star Suspensions made an unofficial record attempt in early July this year using a supercharged and modified, stock bodied Yamaha Attak. The Yamaha reached a top speed of 179.2mph before hitting the rev limiter and running out of gearing.
Team member, Robert Veronneau told us: “Aerodynamics are very important to go fast. Let’s suppose a 100hp vehicle is able to go100mph. To reach 200mph you need about 400hp just to overcome the wind drag. In our case, to go from 180 to 200 MPH, an 11percent speed increase, we will need 44 percent more horsepower. The Godfather’s machine (nickname for the Attak shown on youtube) is estimated at 400 HP. This sled will need over 600hp to go 200mph with the original body. That’s why we will have modified aerodynamics on the record machine”.
As it stands, the new Bonneville contender will use a completely custom designed fiberglass streamliner body laid over the Attak engine and chassis. The blown and injected engine will be modified to produce about 450hp and a special hydraulic primary clutch will use a conventional drivebelt to run the power through a stock Yamaha secondary.
A Camoplast pavement drag racing track will be used and the gearing will be changed to allow the drive system to hold its final drive ratio before the engine hits its limiter. The Team is confident it can reach the 200mph plateau without much more modification to the engine and powertrain.
An official attempt at a snowmobile land speed record will be made in Bonneville in late September or early October. Since there are difficulties with the Bonnevile timing association classifying the sled (they’re not sure how to categorize a snowmobile for an official attempt), the official run may not happen until next year. However, the Team will be testing in September on an airstrip in Coaticook, Quebec and hopes to have an unofficial record of over 200mph soon.
Other sponsors of the effort are: Lamtrac, Camoplast, Inventium, Grebo Precision, ITL Imports, Nika-Tech and Suomy. For more info, go to starsuspensions.com
