World’s fastest motorcycle rips through Jay Leno’s Garage and showers him with oil in chaotic fire-up

The world’s fastest motorcycle has made a very loud, very oily appearance on Jay Leno’s Garage.

This wasn’t a modern superbike or a fragile museum piece.

It was a working replica of a 1907 machine that once held the outright world speed record.

And the moment it fired up, it made that history impossible to ignore.

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The 1907 motorcycle that broke speed records

The bike causing all the chaos is a replica of the 1907 Curtiss V8 Motorcycle – a machine so extreme it briefly made its creator the fastest human alive.

That creator was Glenn Curtiss, an early engine builder and aviation trailblazer who wanted to stress-test a new aircraft engine. 

His solution wasn’t a lab or a test stand. 

He bolted it to a motorcycle frame and took it to the beach.

The engine was a 4.4-liter air-cooled V8 making around 40 horsepower, which in 1907 was outrageous. 

For perspective, the Ford Model T would arrive a year later with roughly half that output. 

Curtiss’ motorcycle had no transmission, no suspension, and barely any braking worth mentioning. 

Power went straight to the rear wheel through a crude direct-drive setup, because the goal wasn’t control.

On January 24, 1907, Curtiss rolled onto Ormond Beach, Florida, which was then one of America’s unofficial speed temples. 

After push-starting the bike with help from two friends, he built speed over two miles before blasting through the flying mile at 136.3mph. 

That number didn’t just top motorcycles. 

It topped everything. 

Cars wouldn’t beat it until 1911, and another motorcycle wouldn’t officially surpass it until 1930.

Why firing up the world’s fastest motorcycle is so chaotic

The machine Jay Leno fired up isn’t the original – that lives safely at the Smithsonian – but it’s close enough.

It was built by Dale Stoner, who spent years reverse-engineering the Curtiss V8 using hundreds of pages of museum documentation and hands-on access to an original example. 

Visually, it’s still a skeletal V8 wedged between thin wheels. 

Mechanically, though, a few modern upgrades keep it from destroying itself.

The fragile cast-iron pistons were swapped for aluminum ones. 

The sketchy total-loss oiling system was replaced with a pressurized dry-sump setup and a hidden filter. 

And the weak driveshaft joint that nearly ended Curtiss’ run in 1907 was upgraded to a heavy-duty modern unit.

Even with those changes, the bike is still pure early-era madness. 

When Stoner fired it up inside Jay Leno’s garage, oil immediately escaped, lightly coating the floor and Jay himself. 

The engine thundered, the bike shook, and everyone in the room was reminded why this thing was never meant to be civilized.

Curtiss once said riding an eight-cylinder motorcycle probably wasn’t going to catch on. 

He was right. 

But more than a century later, firing one up still feels like tempting fate.

And that’s exactly the appeal.

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