AMA Motorcycle Hall of Famer Russ Collins created the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe drag bike in 1973.
Here are a few facts about the awe-inspiring machine.
- The monstrous three-engine Honda was probably the most famous drag bike of the 1970s, being featured in numerous motorcycle and drag racing publications.
- The bike featured three nitro-burning CB750 engines mounted in tandem.
- Collins named the revolutionary drag bike after the famous Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroad line of the late 1800s. That railroad was a pioneer in freight transportation. It ceased operations in 1996.
- The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe set numerous records. Collins rode it to the first seven-second quarter-mile (7.80 seconds at 179 mph) turned on a motorcycle in Ontario, Calif., in 1973.
- The bike became the first Top Fuel motorcycle powered by a Japanese engine to hold an National Hot Rod Association national record.
- It was the first motorcycle to win the NHRA’s “Best Engineered Car” award.
- The bike was so powerful that it was difficult to control.
- The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe was destroyed in a horrendous accident in Akron, Ohio, in 1976. The crash landed Collins in the hospital, and while recuperating he dreamed up his next monster creation: The Sorcerer, powered by a pair of 1,000cc Honda Four engines.