mcflathead
As for Burt Munro, he just had all the necessary skills and did pretty much everything right. He was the consummate Bonneville one-man racing team. He could design, fabricate and was an accomplished racer. The body of the Munro Special was beautiful… small frontal area with minimal exposure to the air stream, and overall somewhat porpoise-like and undoubtedly very slippery. That had to be a big factor. (I would love to put our power-train in something like that!) And there was nothing "old Indian" about the engine other than a set of 1920 crankcases. The original 1920 Indian Scout was a flathead, Burt's was an OHV. Pistons, cylinders, heads, rods, flywheels, oil pump, etc… all designed and hand-fabricated by Burt. Information on the 1000 cc engine's power output is sketchy. Some estimate as high as 100 hp… perhaps he was running fuel (nobody seems to be sure). Others figure 65-70. (Wouldn't that be something!) Whatever it was, he was obviously doing the right things to go fast. A lot of guys go to Bonneville with a hot cam, big carb, etc. Sacrifice mid-range but get big HP at high RPM on the dyno or a backroad test at 1000' . "Boy were makin' power now!" Then they go to Bonneville were they're down 20% in the heat of the day. Now the bike won't pull top gear… "What the hell went wrong???" You see it all the time…