Reader Ride – Baker Formula One Sidecar

In 3 Wheels, Guest Writers, Race by AbhiLeave a Comment

5-30-2018 Update: Two years later, this interesting sidecar is now actually up for sale! “The electric motor has since been removed and a race-prepared Suzuki GSXR 1000 engine and 6-speed transmission will be included along with a bodywork mold, extra wheels, and a North Carolina bill of sale.” Find it with bidding up to $2,750 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina here on Bring a Trailer.


This bike’s not for sale, but I’ve wanted to share it ever since I learned about Kevin Clemens and his quest for electric-powered speed.

Kevin was kind enough to share the story of his rig, so please enjoy:

Baker Formula One Sidecar

With a second place at the legendary Isle of Man TT race, seven U.S. national sidecar road racing championships, and two AMA National and four FIM World land speed records at Bonneville (subject to ratification) this Formula One Baker is the most significant racing sidecar in North America.

While sidecar racing is fairly obscure in the U.S., it is popular throughout most of the rest of the world- particularly at the yearly and highly dangerous Isle of Man (IOM) race.

Tony Baker who has competed at the Isle of Man 25 times in sidecars, finishing as high as fifth, built this Baker in 1987 in the U.K. to take on the tough IOM course. To withstand the jumps, twists and occasional collisions with immovable objects he made it with a thicker than normal steel tube frame compared to the other Baker sidecars he had built, and it has stood up well to its extensive racing lifetime. It was the first of the so-called “long-bikes” with a longer wheelbase to aid in high-speed stability and improve aerodynamics.

In 1988, Dennis Brown with his passenger Billy Nelson took on the Baker long bike, and with a Yamaha TZ750 two-stroke engine, finished eighth at the IOM race. The next year, 1989, still with the same Yamaha engine, he finished 2nd, lapping the TT course at 107.87 mph, setting the fastest ever long-bike time- a record that still stands today. Brown and Nelson also ran the Baker in the British Championships, with good success.

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1989 turned out to be the last year that the ultra-fast rear-engine Formula One bikes would run at the IOM. From 1990 on the organizers switched to the slightly less insane front-engine Formula Two class.

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In 1991, Brown sold his Baker to noted Californian motorcycle racer Peter Breede. Breede ran it with both a TZ500 and a TZ750 engine, attempting to qualify at the 1991 World Sidecar Championships at Laguna Seca without success.

1n 1993, Californian Rick Murray bought the Baker without an engine and installed a Kawasaki ZX-10 engine. The combination proved to be almost unbeatable with countless U.S. road racing wins and seven national championships in as many years.

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As successful as the Baker had been, Murray decided to run a more modern monocoque LCR sidecar and in 2000, he sold the Baker to Jerry Chin in Washington state with a fresh ZX10 motor installed. Chin had little success with the outfit and in his second year of racing it installed a heavily race-prepared Suzuki GSXR 1000cc engine. He raced it with this motor twice and then sold the outfit to Thomas Haynes in Indianapolis. Haynes never raced the Baker, taking it out only for a few demonstration laps.

In 2013, Kevin Clemens bought the Baker for a unique project. Clemens had set several AMA national and FIM world land speed records on electric motorcycles at the Bonneville Salt Flats and was looking to build a highly aerodynamic road racing sidecar into an electric record setter. In 2014, running a single AC motor and with his son as passenger, and despite problems with the motor overheating, he set an AMA National record at Bonneville at a modest speed of 64.475 mph.

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The bike was then shipped to New Zealand for demonstration runs and upon its return a twin AC motor drive and new battery pack (half of a Nissan Leaf pack) were engineered. Bonneville was cancelled in 2015, so Clemens took the outfit to the Colorado Mile event where he set a record of 123.8 mph in the mile.

Over the winter of 2015-2016, Clemens worked extensively at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand to develop a more aerodynamic rear section for the Baker Sidecar body. Computational Fluid Dynamics and scale wind tunnel tests were performed to optimize the aerodynamic shape. Upon returning to the U.S. he built the new section from fiberglass and carbon fiber and it first ran at the ECTA June event in Ohio where the bike set a record at 117.8 mph in the mile.

In August of 2016, Clemens returned to the Salt Flats with the Baker and set four FIM world land speed records and one AMA U.S. National land speed record (records subject to ratification). A recurrence of the motor heating issues limited the highest top speed to 115 mph.

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Subsequent dynamometer testing has indicated why this is occurring and, working with the motor manufacturer, a solution has been found. The Baker with its new rear body section was also tested in the A2 wind tunnel in North Carolina in September 2016.

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This unusual motorcycle, with its unsurpassed history from the Isle of Man, championship performances at race tracks all over America, and land speed records set at the Bonneville Salt Flats has many more chapters in its unique history yet to be written.