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Everyone interprets history in his own way. Europeans are sure that the fastest motorcyclist in the world in the first half of the 20s was the Englishman Claude Temple - in 1922 he accelerated to 174.5 km / h on the 2-cylinder OEC Temple-Anzani. Yes, Temple set a record, but only for motorcycles with engines with a working volume of up to 1000 cm - at that time FIM, the International Motorsport Federation, did not recognize a larger displacement. In Europe, motorcycles “over a liter” really weren’t made at that time, and it was not clear to the impudent officials that in the USA they were already releasing bikes with engines of a much larger volume.
And the Americans spit on Euro-bureaucratic games from a high skyscraper - at that time they did not enter the FIM and chased by their own rules. Therefore, and quite rightly, Charles “Red” Wolverton was considered the fastest motorcyclist in the world: his 1229-cc 4-cylinder Ace XP4 accelerated to 208.5 km / h in 1923! For the first time in the world, by the way, breaking the “200” line on two wheels.
Brewed porridge with American 4-cylinder William Henderson. He began to build such motorcycles under his own name in 1912, but in 1917 he lost to Ignaz Schwinn, a bicycle magnate, and sold him the Henderson brand. Either the money from this deal quickly ended, or William was infinitely restless by nature, but after a couple of years he emerged in Philadelphia as the producer of the next Quartet, this time under the Ace brand ("Ace"). The machine came out good! On it in 1922, the legendary cannonball racer Baker set a record for crossing America from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean - in seven days. Alas, in December of that year, Henderson crashed while testing the new Ace model.
Not only that, with his death, a hole was formed in the staffing of the company - here, too, buyers turned their noses: well, that this company is without Henderson! Members of the board of the “firmochki” invited Arthur Lemon, a once close associate of William, tearfully asked to create “something like that.” He did not miss a chance to knock out money - not for a salary, but for the purchase of a dynamometer, an assembly at that time of the rarest and terribly expensive.
Having got it, Lemon took up the construction of the apparatus under the XP4 index - that is, "experimental, 4-cylinder." Outwardly, he looked like production cars, but only outwardly. For example, the crankcase is made of magnesium alloy, the lubrication of the main bearings is under pressure, and not by spraying, as on a serial engine. Connecting rods and pistons made of special alloys are drilled to reduce weight - just like the gears of the drive of the oil pump and magneto. And in general, Lemon was quite anxious about weight reduction. He ordered a lightweight aluminum alloy carburetor from Schebler, and when he received it, he made a scandal: almost bronze jets! They are heavy! Remake this hour on aluminum! I, you know, make thin-walled pipes, and you tell me!.. As a result, the super-economy car weighed only 129 kg. But we are talking about a device with a motor displacement of 1229 cmz!
One of the nodes Lemon in America could not find - a magneto that could withstand 6000 rpm. I had to install the Swiss, Scintilla Vertex. But on the dynamometer, the engine produced 52 liters. with. at 6000 rpm For racing, for reasons of reliability, it was deformed to 45 liters. with. at 5400 rpm, but this value is also twice as high as that of the standard ACE road motor.
