Royal Enfield Sabre 650 Breaks Land Speed Record

By Bike Review • 4 years ago •

The Mid Life Cycles Royal Enfield Interceptor 650 Salt Racer has smashed the class record at the annual Speed Week run at Lake Gairdner, South Australia. Ridden by first-time salt racer Charlie Hallam, the Interceptor 650 Twin nicknamed SABRE broke the four-year-old class record at 212.514 km/h.

This record breaking, one-off build managed to crack a four-year-old class record at 214km/h.

The Interceptor 650 was entered in Class M-F 650, for 650cc un-streamlined motorcycles running commercial unleaded fuel. The old record of 119.961 MPH was set at Lake Gairdner in 2016. Charlie Hallam broke the record on Day One of Speed Week (Monday 8 March 2021), with his first run at 121.782 MPH. He backed that up with a 123.601 MPH pass, for a provisional record of 122.691 MPH.

On the morning of Day Two, Charlie and the Interceptor 650 ran 128.935 MPH and 130.204 MPH for a new provisional record of 129.570 MPH. The Geelong-based HRA team, headed by experienced salt racers Andrew and Kate Hallam, thought this was an extraordinary result for a 650cc single-cam, air-cooled Twin, but Charlie believed there was a little more to come.

First time salt flat racer Charlie Hallam broke the record on Day One for a 650cc un-streamlined motorcycle running commercial unleaded fuel.

That afternoon, the Interceptor ran 130.370 MPH and was then impounded overnight until it could do a back-up run the next morning. This run, under increasingly stormy skies, saw a stunning 133.779 MPH top speed, for a new record of 132.050 MPH.

Even after a successful opening two days, this year’s event threw up further challenges with a storm sweeping across Lake Gairdner on Day Three (Wednesday), causing the eventual closure of Speed Week ahead of schedule as the lake surface proved unsafe for high-speed passes after subsequent heavy overnight rain.