In August of 1956, Bob Burns and Russell Wright ran 198.3 mph.
It was not enough to recapture the record they had claimed in 1955 with a speed of 185 mph in New Zealand.
In his autobiography, Burns, the tuner, records that the speed of 198 was achieved on 20% nitro with the engine cranking out 6000 rpm. Yank racers who had experience with nitro later admitted that they had not told Burns that he was being too conservative with the "bug juice" as the rule of thumb at that time was to start out with a mixture that was 40% nitro!
Thinking of Russell, Burns speculates that an increase of a mere 500 rpm would have translated into a likely increase of 15 m.p.h.--and with that the title of world's fastest, but it was not to be.
