Spirit of America
The FIM book could have the wrong date but it is printed as 13-10-1964 in the European manner. The FIM give three decimal places with no rounding hence the 527.327 mph for the kilometre. The Hot Rod magazine figure is rounded to two decimal places - 527.33 mph. The FIM does not list any mile speed in their booklet.
Primacy of mile over the kilometre.
Has the longer timed distance of the mile just 'become' the often quoted speed? Both World governing bodies accept records for the kilometre and for the mile?
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Apologies for continuing this slightly off-topic part of the thread, but someone has been kind enough to send me a photo of the relevant page in the FIM booklet.
So I see the 13.10.64 date which I understand to be incorrect. Craig set records on both 13 and 15 October that year, with the 4.242 second km being on 15.10.64.
It's very easy to make typing errors in these lists of dates, times and speeds, and the FIM and FIA seem to be no better at checking than the rest of us. Indeed, just a few rows above I can read that Don Vesco covered a mile in 7.391 seconds in 1975, which would be 487.079mph if correct
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