The Kiwi Guzzi that could fly
NEW ZEALANDER MIKE NOONAN WAS ALWAYS fascinated with speed pursuits; after he’d been to the Isle of Man TT, he thought of it as an amazing experience. He also realised that it takes a special type of person to achieve top speeds on such a course: “I realised that I’ve got some skills, but not such skills like a TT rider. I’ve always been aware of Bonneville land speed racing (LSR), and it is something where you don’t get tangled up with other people.” Mike’s final trigger of contemplating a Bonneville speed record was watching The World’s Fastest Indian movie – not in the way of copying it, but perceiving it as being accessible to an everyday person. “There were people who said ‘come on, what makes you think you can do such a feat?’ The type of person Burt Munro was, or was portrayed to be... everything seemed to make sense for me, that I could be such a person to some level. I also had mechanical engineering education and a passion for what I’m building, so why shouldn’t I be doing such an undertaking?”
Mike nearly contemplated doing a record attempt on a Honda CX500, but thought he could improve his challenge: “So, in 2013, I was drinking with mates at York Street Mechanics in Auckland and running the idea past them, but it wasn’t taken too seriously.” Only Mike’s mates, David Jones and Ian Hambly, supported the idea and really believed he could do it – bearing in mind that Mike had been known to be a stickler for always finishing started projects, like education or work designs, even
