Bike set to smash speed record

Nice wheels ... Paul Anderson on the modified Harley Davidson which he built in his garage

A TEAM of aircraft engineers are attempting to smash the British land speed record — using a modified Harley Davidson motorbike.

They hope the speedy roadster will eventually reach whopping speeds of up to 250mph.
The current UK land speed record is 222mph, which they hope to top with a speed of more than 230mph when they race the bike next spring.

Paul Anderson, 56, an engineer for plane makers Airbus, has been revamping the bike with work colleagues in their spare time.


He got together with fellow Airbus engineers Serbian Andrija Ekmedzic and Richard Spencer to create the bike.


And also roped in pal Garry Morgan and 16-year-old Bristol Grammar School student Connor Galbraith.
Paul, who has raced bikes most of his life, said: "This is a bit of a boys' toy for us, obviously we are all interested in engineering and thought it'd be a great way to bring all our skills together.


"We have made use of wind tunnel technology to develop the speed of the motorbike and have also used a lot of up to the minute software.

Racy ... Paul Anderson and his pals hope the bike will smash the current British land speed record

"The bike still needs more work but we hope our attempt in the spring will be successful."
The super-quick motorcycle is currently being modified in Paul's garage.
Yesterday the team fired up the engine of the bike for the first time.
Paul said: "We decided to call the bike Svarog after a Slavic god.

Speedy ... the team believe the super-fast bike will one day reach 250mph

"Svarog is known as a blacksmith and is represented as a burning wheel, which we have taken as our team symbol.

"It might sound odd but as our chief designer is Serbian it fitted in well with what we are about.
"We've called our team Byzantine Racing, in recognition of the international nature of our attempt.
"People have helped us from Serbia, France, Spain and Germany - it's very much a group effort."
The team also has plans to develop a streamliner — a vehicle designed like a fighter plane without wings — to break the world land speed record, which currently stands at 375mph.