Want to hear a bit of cool history from around these parts???
We are the home of greats and well knowns as Alice Cooper, Ted Nugent and Madonna. Home to Henry Ford's River Rouge Plant and even the Coney Island hot dog.
But there is one God like, barley mortal gentleman Know as [center][sep] [big]"The Michigan MadMan"[/big]. [sep][big]E.J. Potter.[/big] [sep][b][center]The man had balls of brass the size of cannon balls.[/center] This is from Wiki: [/center][/b] "Born in Ithaca, Michigan, Elon Jack Potter grew up on a farm repairing tractor engines, which led to building motorcycles. In high school, he wondered if he could build a bike with a V8 engine. The bike he built, named "Bloody Mary", was tested at a local strip and reached 130 mph (210 km/h).
He later built a three-wheeled motorcycle with a United States military surplus rocket engine. "The Widowmaker" set three world land speed records. Potter's other creations include putting a jet engine in a Motorized tricycle and putting WWII airplane engines into tractors for tractor pull competitions. This was the first of it's kind:
"Beginning soon after his high school graduation, Potter toured the racing circuit for 13 years with his creations. In his early days of competing the event organizers would pay him $1 for each mile per hour he achieved over 100mph at the 1/4 mile speed trap."
He would burn rubber the entire 1/4 mile.
" There was nothing Potter wouldn’t do to go faster – including removing his clutch entirely because he was losing too much power due to it slipping. He’d built the clutch from a Harley-Davidson drum brake, and although he’d tried to make it as strong as possible, it just couldn’t handle the 500+bhp Chevrolet V8."
The bike would sit on a stand at the start line running and when it was time he would push it off the stand.
In 2017, Potter's 1971 Widowmaker 7 went up for auction in Las Vegas projected to bring $65,000 to $85,000 USD . Potter's motorcycles were featured on an episode of American Pickers in 2019.
"E. J. Potter (April 24, 1941 - April 30, 2012[1]), a.k.a. the Michigan Madman, was an American drag strip exponent. Writing his obituary in 2012, Paul Vitello of the New York Times described him as a "legend"."
