Claiming 6,000 horsepower (no, not 600), the Warbike was the creation of Bill Wildt. The name was actually WARbike, as it was a partial acronym for Wildt’s Astro Racer bike, and it was built to race against top fuel dragsters.
The seller provides an interesting history in the listing:
“Bill Wildt had a passion for all types of racing including oval track racing, VW beetles, drag racing and motorcycles. The racing that really caught Bill’s attention was flat track motorcycle. Bill raced Bultaco’s, Triumphs and finally ended up with a Harley XR750. Bill was in a real bad accident on his XR750 which ended his flat track racing career and was in the hospital for an extended period of time. While in the hospital Bill knew he couldn’t flat track motorcycles any more but still wanted to race motorcycles. Many years prior, he had bought a 1000 HP Turbonique rocket turbine. He decided he was going to build a rocket bike that could race against Don Garlits. While in his hospital bed, he made plans to build a rocket powered motorcycle. The bike originally was going to be powered by the rocket turbine, but after a lot of thought he decided to use 2 Turbonique 3000HP each thrust rockets.
His plan had a dual purpose. One was to race with the top fuel dragsters. Second, as Bill watched a lot of race tracks closing down he wanted to bring public consciousness, understanding and appreciation to the motorsport community. That’s when he started the Motorsport Advancement Crusade. While spending ten years building the Warbike, he was devoting a lot of time to the Crusade. By the time the WARBIKE was done, Bill decided it would be used as a show piece for the Crusade which included a turntable that would turn into its own traveling case. It would have it’s own staging and feature eye-catching show girls. The WARBIKE was never raced. Bill had discovered public access TV and started his own cable TV show called Motorsport Unlimited. For the next 35 years, he dedicated all his time to the TV show as a pioneer in the cable broadcast industry to promote motorsports to a whole new audience. The WARBIKE ended up just sitting in the trailer until his passing in 2021.
If you want to learn more about the bike and Turbonique, watch the You Tube links on his Bill Wildt Channel- Explanation 17, Explanation 18 and Explanation 19:”
The hope was for the bike to be able to cover the quarter mile in 5 seconds at 275 miles per hour, and the two motors were good for a claimed 6,640 horsepower. My favorite stat? It would go through a gallon of fuel per second.
I hope someone is able to bring this back to life! Find the Warbike for sale in West Chicago, Illinois for $40,000 here on Craigslist.
This bike-uriousity brought to you by Dan A!