Entering the 650cc twins into the market, Royal Enfield has fulfilled a long-standing purpose of enchanting world customers with its cafe-racer Continental GT 650 and the classic-retro Interceptor which were launched at the 2017 EICMA.

Although late to the party, the bikes are yet to reach showroom floors and will be happening after the EICMA show of Milan in November. After having gathered many eye-balls, Royal Enfield has given us yet another convincing with its stunt of registering a land speed record with the Continental GT ridden by an 18-year-old pretty face during the Bonneville Speed Week.

Location - Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats Motorcycle Speed Trials – “Speed Week”, where speed junkies from all over the world will land on this 10 mile stretch in the pursuit of holding the title for the fastest man and machine.

Riding atop a heavily modified Royal Enfield Continental GT 650 was 18-year-old Fresno, California based motorcycle racer Cayla Rivas, who isn’t new to this sport. Being the daughter of a four-time NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle drag racing champion, Chris Rivas, Cayla already holds 12 world-records in motorcycle racing already. Excluding the one we are talking about.

Backed up by team Royal Enfield, Harris Performance and S&S Racing, Cayla entered the naturally aspirated 750cc class in a bid to reach 130 mph. And she did that in the very first day of the trials. By the end of the week, however, she blew her own record out of the water with a 157.145 mph record that came after blowing the engines twice.

Thanks to the folks at S&S and Harris Performance, she managed to shatter the 151mph record in the class by a huge 57 mph margin. The machine she was riding was by no means “stock”. Although no specifics have been released, we clearly can spot a new tubular chassis, low-set clip-on handlebars, a new swingarm, upgraded Öhlins suspension and a hard-tail on the dragster. The bike also rides on lighter wheels and slick tires.

We have also picked up stories that mention the use of nitrous to boost the power of the 650cc mill. “I’m pretty happy with the final results. We bumped our own record six or seven times, blew two engines, and upped the record by 57 mph so I’d say we had a pretty successful week,” said Rivas.

The Continental GT 650 is Royal Enfield‘s way of making the most powerful and the lightest modern day cafe racer which blends retro style with modern appeal perfectly. Of course, it is a step up for the oldest motorcycle manufacturer in continuous production. But when it comes to pitting against the competition and their quality of products, it still has major miles to cover.

Nonetheless, with Harris Performance backing their engineering team and with the newly launched Royal Enfield Technology Center in the UK, RE has committed to foraying into a new middleweight category of bikes under their hat. This GT 650 is their first attempt here along with its twin, the Interceptor 650.

It will come with a 648cc parallel-twin that features a single piece forged crank with a 270-degree firing order while producing 47 hp and 38 lb-ft of torque. It comes with a slipper clutch, Paioli shocks, Pirelli rubber and more, kitted onto a new double-cradle steel frame.