Larry Lawrence | November 20, 2022
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Vance & Hines Suzuki’s Legendary Top Fuel Beast
Racer Terry Vance had plenty of experience on ultra-fast drag racing motorcycles, he was coming off several seasons of racing a twin-engine Honda that dominated the Top Gas class. But nothing prepared him for the rush of sensory overload when he first twisted the throttle on the super-charged, nitromethane-burning Suzuki Top Fuel machine that his racing partner Byron Hines built.
Terry Vance on the super-charged, nitromethane-burning Suzuki Top Fuel machine that his racing partner Byron Hines built. Photo: NHRA
Although Vance went on to score victories, championships and records, including the first motorcycle to crack the 200-mph barrier and run in the sixes, riding the massive super-charged V&H Suzuki wasn’t a walk in the park. He now admits, despite his success and the tremendous fan attention it brought, the famous wedge-shaped drag bike intimidated him every time he threw a leg over it. Ultimately Vance & Hines sold their famous Top Fuel to another drag-racing legend, Larry McBride. The reasons were not only Vance never feeling comfortable as a rider on the machine, but because their company was growing so fast that they no longer had the time to devote to what was perhaps the most time-consuming and expensive motorcycle the company ever built. But while it lasted, the Vance & Hines Suzuki Top Fuel bike was one of the true wonders in all of drag racing and an experience Vance says he will never forget.
If you’ve seen the documentary about the extensive tests the Air Force accomplished before test pilot Chuck Yeager finally broke the sound barrier, you get an idea of the methodic testing Vance and Hines went through before even entering their Suzuki Top Fuel machine into competition. The idea of the top fueler began pre-Vance & Hines when Terry and Byron were working for Russ Collins and his RC Engineering company.
“We had a double engine Top Gas bike that won 22 out of 23 races over the span of two years,” Vance recalls. “We sort of demoralized the competition in the class. We really didn’t like the fact that we were doing all that winning and not getting any exposure. With the Fuel bikes, all they had to do was show up and it was a big deal. So, we decided to build a Top Fuel bike.”
In 1977, Hines began building the Top Fuel machine. It was initially going to be powered by a Kawasaki KZ900 engine, but then Suzuki stepped in with sponsorship, so Bryon went forward with the build using a Suzuki GS1000-based engine. By late in the year, Vance took his first runs on the bike and found it almost completely unrideable. Since he had so much experience on mega-powerful drag racers, including the Top Gas twin-engine Honda, one might wonder why the Top Fuel Suzuki was such a big step. Vance just laughed when asked.
Drag racing’s winning duo, Terry Vance (left) and Byron Hines. Photo: NHRA
“Comparing that twin-engine Honda to the Suzuki Top Fuel bike is like comparing a lamb to a lion,” Vance said. “It was so radically different it was hard to wrap my mind around it. It felt like you were going into warp speed.
“The Fuel bike would shake the [rear] tire so bad you couldn’t see the track, everything became blurry,” Vance remembers. “You’d get to the middle part of the track and the front wheel would be off the ground and you’d just be on the wheelie bar on the rear wheel, and you’d think, ‘Man, I’m really haulin’ ass.’ When the [rear] tire would quit shaking and go round everything would become crystal clear and you could look over the bar and use it as your sight gauge. It was almost like a camera going out of focus then coming into focus. You’d know when you were on a really good run by how soon that clearness would come to your vision.”
All this building and testing coincided with Terry and Byron making the decision to leave RC Engineering and branch out on their own to start Vance & Hines, so there were a lot of things going on.
On top of that, Hines was trying some newer concepts on the Fueler, including a fixed rear axle and a wing on the back. The unexpected result was a bike that wouldn’t go straight down the track. It took a year of testing, modifying and retesting before the boys had a bike that they felt confidently would make it to the end of the quarter mile without hitting the wall. The key was getting the shape, weight and width of the Tracy bodywork right, to allow the aerodynamics to guide the bike straight down the center of the drag lane. Hines also modified the fixed axle to be adjustable so the bike would steer better. In 1980, Suzuki came out with its GS1100 and the team switched to that engine with its four-valve heads. The bike was constantly losing cranks because of the weakness of the aluminum engine cases. Suzuki delivered the answer with cast iron cases.
“They [iron cases] were 45 pounds heavier than what we had before,” Hines recalled. “But they were bulletproof, so in late 1980 or early ’81 we began using them.”
Vance said that comparing the twin-engine Honda to the Suzuki Top Fuel bike at that time was like comparing a lamb to a lion. Photo: NHRA
After Russ Collins set the top-speed bar in 1978 with his run of 199.55mph, the Holy Grail of Top Fuel motorcycle racing in the early 1980s was breaking the 200-mph barrier and getting into the six-second elapsed time. All the big names were trying to get there, including living legends like Russ Collins, Elmer Trett and Bo O’Brochta to name a few.
Vance, on the Vance & Hines Suzuki Top Fueler, became the first to reach the marks, but it was not without controversy. It happened on a Wednesday night, on August 4, 1982, at Orange County International Raceway. While testing, Vance had an awesome run and tripped the lights with a pass at 6.98 seconds at 203.61 mph. They accomplished the feat even though the crankshaft broke during the pass. The controversy was whether the run should have even been considered as legitimate. It didn’t happen during a national event, but at a regular weekly Orange County Wednesday Drag Meet, which primarily drew locals to drag race their street machines. The locals would occasionally get a big treat when some of the Top Fuel teams would show up and use the weekly meet as a low-cost testing ground. But since Vance’s 200-plus mph run was not at a nationally sanctioned meet, the record was largely ignored.
“There’s been a debate forever about who ran the first 200 mph, six-second run, and I don’t even care about that,” Vance said. “It was a national track with top-notch timing gear, a regular weekly meet and everyone saw it, so no one could deny that. All I can say is that it was a real man’s machine; I don’t know any other way to say it. If you didn’t have experience on other drag bikes, you’d never be able to manage it. You couldn’t just put someone on a Fuel bike, they’d kill themselves. It was the top of the food chain in terms of power. You had to have a few screws loose to ride one in the first place.”
A year after Vance’s 200-plus run, Elmer Trett got the official recognition as the first to break the fabled 200 mph barrier when he did it at the NHRA U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis in 1983, in the semi against O’Brochta. Trett and Vance met in the final at Indy setting up the perfect scenario between the two top guns. Vance nailed the light and got a great start and had a lead but blew his motor on the shift, giving the win to Trett.
Vance finally decided to quit riding the V&H Suzuki top fueler when Vance found he could not control the direction of the bike in a crosswind.
“The problem was we were pushing the envelope without the advantage of a wind tunnel,” Vance said. “Today that would have been the first place we would have tested.
“At that point I was ready to work on making Pro Stock more popular, and I was afraid the Fuel bike was going to continue presenting challenges we might not be able to answer. So, I finally told Byron I wasn’t going to ride it anymore.”
Today, Vance looks back and can now smile about both the fame riding that machine gave him, and the aspect of riding such a powerful, awe-inspiring and hard-to-handle machine and living to tell the tale.
“Even though we only ran the Fuel bike for about four years, that got us as much or more notoriety than the Pro Stock thing,” Vance said. “People really liked the bike. They liked the way it looked, kind of futuristic, and it was a great brand ambassador for Suzuki. If I walk into a room or someone introduces me, the first thing people say is, ‘Oh man, I saw you run that Fuel bike. It was awesome!’ They always remember that bike, and it always had a special place in my heart.”
Larry McBride bought the Vance & Hines Top Fuel Suzuki, rebadged it and campaigned it for several years before heavily crashing the bike in the early ’90s and being badly hurt in the process. The motorcycle was damaged in the crash, but McBride still has it.
“I’m hoping to have the bike restored at some point,” McBride said. “But I’m still actively racing, and it takes all my time. But someday we will bring it back.”
Vance would love to see the machine restored.
“I should just call Larry and throw him a bunch of money to rebuild it,” Vance said. “It would be great to be reunited with one of the most recognizable machines in drag racing history.” CN
