Those two racers went on to success with their own motorcycle business, Vance&Hines. In addition to several event wins, their bike won the company's third NHRA Best Engineered Award. Two were his own employees, Terry Vance and Byron Hines, who raced a RC Engineering-built ,Top Fuel Suzuki. In 1980, Russ Collins passed the 200mph drag bike torch to younger competitors. That mark stood for 12 years, a truly astonishing feat in a sport where records are broken monthly. Blown, injected and running on 90% nitro, this two-wheeled, twin-engined rocket set a world motorcycle acceleration record for the quarter- mile of 7.30 sec./199.55 mph. This bike won a second NHRA Best Engineered Award for RC Engineering. Built in early-1977 and later billed as the World's Greatest Drag Bike, Sorcerer was powered by a pair of 1000cc. While recuperating from the accident, Collins designed the "Sorcerer", his final Top Fuel bike creation. In 1976, it was destroyed in a horrendous crash at Akron, Ohio that nearly killed Russ, put him in the hospital for several weeks and kept him in a wheelchair for several more. Russ Collins' three-motor monster eventually ran a best of 7.80 sec./179.5 mph but, in the end, proved a death-defying ride. The "AT&SF," also, became the first motorcycle to win NHRA's coveted "Best Engineered Car" award at the Springnationals in 1973. This frightening machine became the first, seven-second motorcycle in drag racing and theįirst Top Fuel bike with a Japanese engine to hold a NHRA National Record. Russ Collins built the "Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe", a thundering, three-engine, nitromethane-burning, Honda. Responding to the double-engine "trend", RC Engineering raised the bar another notch. By 1973, to beat The Assassin, other racers were forced to use double-engine Nortons, Triumphs and Harley-Davidsons. It was the first Japanese bike to run on alcohol and nitromethane fuels. It was the first Japanese motorcycle to use magneto ignition. It had the first dual- Weber carburetor set-up for a motorcycle and later it was the first motorcycle to use fuel injection and a supercharger together. Innovations abounded on that famous bike. On The Assassin, Collins set drag race records all over the country.
Built in 1971, "The Assassin" weighed a mere 360 pounds and was powered by a 400 horsepower Honda four-cylinder. RC Engineering's reputation for pushing the limits of technology led to the first, successful, blown-injected-on-fuel drag bike. Its motto was and remains today: "We prove our products in the face of our competitors." The Revolution in Motorcycle Drag Racing Russ Collins became a drag racing legend and RC Engineering became the place to go for high performance parts for Japanese bikes. Not only was Collins, himself, setting records and winning but so were his customers. He started RC Engineering to manufacture that product.īefore the end of the year, he'd set the first ever National Hot Rod Association track record for a Japanese motorcycle and was winning races on RC Engineering-built Hondas at a time when Triumph and Harley-Davidson dominated the sport. In 1969, Russ began racing Honda 750s and designed the first, four-into-one motorcycle exhaust header. By the mid-60s, he was an authority on high performance motorcycle engines. Russ Collins began drag racing motorcycles in the late 1950s. Like many figures in American hot rodding, Russ has a colorful past, but how did someone even the sport of motorcycle racing saw as a bit of a "wild man," end up operating a successful, high-technology business like RC Fuel Injection? RC Fuel Injection, the global leader in electronic fuel injectors for high- performance automotive, motorcycle and marine applications, was started three decades ago by motorcycle racer, Russ Collins.
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