BOBBIE BURNS, THE MAN AND HIS MACHINE
Paul Richardson
MPH 74
Page 9
The first time the name Robert Burns cropped up in the correspondence at Stevenage was during April of this year. Very
reminiscent of Scotland; a country of famous people like Robert Burns, Rab Cook and Johnnie Walker, to name but a few.
This customer wrote in about his Rapide, frame number RC7019, the performance of which he appeared desirous of
enhancing. Some Lightning bits had already been fitted, enabling him to put up a New Zealand sidecar record of 105.14
m.p.h. but he had ordered some more parts through his dealer, such as cams and gearbox internals; he sent us a picture of
the machine. His letter further contained some sensible observations and he queried certain details. As far as we were
concerned it was a more or less routine enquiry from an enthusiast who wanted to go a bit quicker. From then onwards
Bobbie Burns lost no time in becoming the man who has been officially timed at a higher speed than any man on earth on a
sidecar outfit.
More snapshots arrived to show that local coachbuilders had constructed a light alloy shell, split in a top and bottom half,
like an Easter egg. The framework was built ship fashion of 7-ply stiffened with gusseted alloy channel; panelling, was in
16 s.w.g. sheet, the wheel slots wired 8 s.w.g. Widest point of shell 27in., overall length including the tail 11 ft. 2 ins.
Aerofoil section sidecar tubing and a 5/16 in. steel framework with l in. plates and zinc ballast constituted the "chair" neatly
enclosed in a spat. At that stage attention to detail was already evident from the fact that the frontal area of the lot
conformed to F.I.M. regulations. On the 18th of September, Burns intended to raise his record to 135 but rather to his
surprise he attained 146.1 m.p.h. and he wrote with glee that his three-wheeler had also become the fastest motor-cycle
timed over the half-mile in the Southern hemisphere.
After this fine achievement it became evident that Bobbie Burns was after even bigger things; a letter from his club
confirmed this. When he wrote and asked: "Where do we go from here," the only thing we could do for him was to send out
a pair of used experimental big-port heads and two 1.7/16in. carburettors less float chambers. Burns wrote that he found the
fitting of these bits interesting and successful; he had a 1.1/2 gal. tank made up and mentioned his compression ratio as
11.85, It was our impression that Avons were not too happy about the choice of tyres used for the previous attempt but they
rose to the occasion with the usual efficiency to make the required record-breaking pattern available in time for the next
attempt. We queried why, for the September run, the rear frame had been locked up. Apparently difficulty was experienced
in getting the rear carb to clear the rear fork tubes and although Burns expressed his belief in rear springing, he preferred a
rigid set-up for this particular purpose. He was also anxious to maintain perfect vertical alignment between chair and shell;
moreover he wanted to avoid extra loads imposed on his three-point sidecar attachment. At speeds of that order we were not
in a position to argue the toss and the proof of the pudding is in the eating!
During the September "do" Russel Wright established a N.Z. solo record on his Lightning which was the actual Show model
of 1953. Burns wrote at length about Wright's sporting offer to loan the Lightning for further sidecar attempts. The machine
had done a best run of 144 and was obviously a good basis to work on. We also assumed that the 27in. dia. wheels would be
an advantage from the tyre point of view. In the meantime the outfit had been most handsomely painted in two shades of
blue by club member Beeching; we connected Beeching's activities with the Western hemisphere from where he used to
send the most amusing pencil sketches and we had no idea that he was on the spot as well. Bobbie Burns did trial runs
without the shell on 2400 jets, bored out the needle jets to 0.175 and threw away the needles; slides filed to 10/16 in. This
gave him 144/5 m.p.h. with the chair, a gain of some 14 m.p.h. over his "Lightningised" Rapide in ,the same trim. An
untoward occurrence was the coming adrift of the chain oiler pipe at speed, an experience which Bob did not enjoy at all.
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Deadline for an attack on the world sidecar record was the 20th of December and this by courtesy of the local County
Council who closed the Ohoka Tram road. Not only had Burns made the most detailed study of the F.I.M. regulations
appertaining to record attempts, but he also arranged for "a van-load of tricks" in the, way of .time-keeping gear. The
equipment consisted of a quartz crystal oscillating 100,000 times per second and accurate to one part in a million of from
which a frequency division of 100 cycles a second was produced with the same degree of accuracy. The intervals between
the impressions made on a magnetic tape as the rider passed between two photo-electric cells at each end of the kilometre
section thus provided precise timing. There were many other matters to contend with: the N.Z. A.C.U. is not an independent
body like its Canadian counterpart, but affiliated to the British A.C.U. Permission must be obtained to attack a world record,
the credentials of official time-keepers must be approved and any slip-up on these matters immediately invalidates the
attempt. It is obvious that the total of all these preparations takes time quite apart from the financial aspects of the venture.
New Zealand record-breaker, Robert Burns, with his now famous Vincent outfit. On the left is John Beeching, formerly N.
American Club Organiser, and seated "in the sidecar" is enthusiastic New Zealand Member, Oscar Van Dongen. The new
"paint job" on the streamliner is the work of Johnny Beeching and not the result of ramming a pedestrian at 145.6 m.p.h.
Robert Burns was timed at over 1 m.p.h. faster than the existing record; there was some conjecture as to the necessity of
bettering a record by a margin of more than one per cent but this rule does not appear to apply as in air speed records. Burns
expressed disappointment on this result, caused by breathing troubles inside the shell, necessitating a reduction in main jet
size to 1400 after several unsuccessful runs. The six double runs involved 52 miles of motoring with the sidecar at over 140
m.p.h. but steering never gave any worry, in spite of fiddling with air levers and hand gear change. Changes were made at
90 in bottom, 125 in second and 140 odd in third!
This amazing man emigrated to New Zealand from Edinburgh. At one time he was seriously interested in model making
and with a partner he opened his own shop in Leith Walk, Edinburgh after the war. He took up this hobby when he was with
the Scottish Motor Traction Company. He learnt the basic ideas of aero-dynamic construction when he worked with the
Blackburn Aircraft Company at Brough airfield in England. His sister married a N.Z. sheep farmer. As a private owner
Bobbie Burns attacked a world record of great importance and there is a distance of 13,000 miles between this man and the
makers of his machine. Outstanding, however, is the fact that this successful engineer never fails to give credit to those who
helped him. On every occasion he emphasises the assistance received from his dealer, his motor-cycle club, his friends, his
mechanics, the time-keepers, the coachbuilders and everyone who took an interest in his endeavours.
The student of human emotion cannot be but moved by a report from New Zealand that Mrs. Burns "drew excitedly on a
cigarette" while the father of her two boys attempted to place another milestone in the history of motor-cycling. She
admitted she was glad it was over, she was worried but she would not have stopped him for anything
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