The MTT Turbine Superbike, also known as the Y2K Turbine Superbike, is a wheel-driven motorcycle powered by a turboshaft engine. When MTT president Ted Mclntyre decided to add a motorcycle to his firm's range, he appointed Christian Travert, a former bike racer and custom builder, to head the project. The machine is powered by a Rolls-Royce-Allison Model 250 gas turbine producing 320 shp at 6,000 rpm. Unlike some earlier jet-powered motorcycles, where a massive jet engine provided thrust to push the motorcycle, the turboshaft engine on this model drives the rear wheel via a two-speed gearbox and chain and sprocket.
The engines used in the motorcycles are second-hand, having reached the FAA-mandated running time limit, after which they have to be rebuilt, regardless of condition. To get around the problem of procuring the kerosene usually used in turbine engines, the engine is also able to use diesel, or jet fuel.
In 2008, MTT promised to release a more powerful "Streetfighter," another turbine bike with a more powerful 420 hp from the Allison 250-20b engine, but it was never released and the orange bike only featured the standard shaft turbine. Due to the converted 3 speed Toyota gearbox and right angle bevel drive, the power loss was quite high and the bike only made around 270hp at the rear wheel. The bike has never achieved a speed even close to 250mph and many people feel it is impossible due to not making enough horsepower to achieve such a terminal speed.
Greatest Ever: Motorcycles, a television program by Discovery Channel, ranked the Turbine Superbike the fourth greatest motorcycle, stating that it held a Guinness World Record for the world's fastest production motorcycle, and that it was also the most expensive. Paul Garson praised its audacity, while Jay Leno, who had owned a Turbine Superbike for almost four years at the time of the broadcast, said of it: "It really does scare you half to death, but it's great fun."
However, in the same program, author and former Classic Bike editor Hugo Wilson said the Turbine Superbike had "as much relevance to motorcycling as a fish." Racer and author Mat Oxley went further, calling the Turbine Superbike "an exercise in technological masturbation." Leno introduced the Turbine Superbike as "really a stupid motorcycle."
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