How a New Zealand engineer and racer transformed a 1920 Indian Scout into a Bonneville record machine.
Burt Munro did not simply ride a showroom Indian Scout to a speed record. Working in Invercargill, New Zealand, he spent decades modifying his motorcycle and developing components to pursue ever greater speeds. His machine became a heavily altered racing motorcycle, not a specification that can be applied to an ordinary 1920 Scout.
Munro travelled to the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, where his runs became part of motorcycle land-speed racing history. In 1967 he set a recognised class record of 183.586 mph in the under-1,000 cc category. That recorded average should not be confused with other reported peak speeds from individual runs.
The 2005 film The World's Fastest Indian, starring Anthony Hopkins, introduced Munro to a worldwide audience. It is a dramatized account rather than a technical source for the motorcycle's exact modifications.
The original Scout, Munro's special and the modern Indian Scout share a famous name, but not interchangeable engineering. AnyBike preserves each generation and its supporting evidence separately.