Tim Birkin bio?

I don't know a thing about cars or car racing, but I recently saw "Full Throttle" with Rowan Atkinson (mainly because Atkinson was in it), and it got me interested. I was wondering if there actually was a bio written about Birkin as depicted in the movie, and if so where it might be found. I am also interested, what is the top speed that race cars get up to these days? I know this is uk.rec.cars.classic and might not be the place to ask that question. Anyway, thanks in advance to anyone who can help me.

Reply to
peter_mcqueen
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Sir Henry ("Tim") Birkin wrote his autobiography called "Full Throttle". It crops up regularly enough on ebay, or copies can be found through abebooks. It's a wonderful book, and leaves me astonished at the skill, bravery, and physical strength of these drivers: lapping Brooklands at

135mph in a 6 1/2 litre Bentley; 100mph through the streets of Newtownards, with spectators on every corner: it was another world.

What's this about Rowan Atkinson?

I am also interested, what is the top speed that race cars

No idea. They impose all sorts of ridiculous conditions on them to slow them down artificially. If they're going to do that, they should add one more - a maximum noise level, so people living several miles from a race track don't have to listen to the racket. Surely grown-ups don't need all this noise to enjoy watching it?

Reply to
Autolycus

Well, there's a Merc GP car from about 1910 in their West End showrooms, and it's said to have a top speed of about 110 mph.

IIRC, the 'blower Bentleys' were about 130, but this is only from memory.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

I'm no great fan of his, but he does do quite a bit of motor racing. Has several cars, inc an Aston Martin V8, and a Mclaren F1. Regularly takes part in the Goodwood Revival historic races. Not very successfully the few times I've seen him perform. Never seen 'Full Throttle' but presumably his links to historic racing is how he got involved.

Champ cars about 225mph on the larger ovals. F1 cars around 200mph in race trim, The downforce needed to corner well prevents higher speeds being obtained. But, as a BTW, BAR-Honda plan to run an F1 car on the Bonneville salt flats sometime in October. It is expected to exceed 250mph. It will be basically a std F1 car with reduced downforce, but with the addition of a parachute, to slow it down at the end of the run. Mike.

Reply to
Mike G

If anyone's interested in the movie "Full Throttle", starring Rowan Atkinson, go here:

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Thanks for the book info. Abebooks has plenty of good copies. I'll probably go there. Haven't checked eBay yet, but I would kind of prefer not to have to bid on a copy, unless it looks like I can get it cheaper than Abebooks. I'll see. Thanks again.

Reply to
Peter McQueen

Ah - misread that as in 'those' days. Must try and keep up.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

They do impose noise limits. Every track and race series has noise limits. A race series will set a limit based on the lowest limit for the tracks they use or exclude some tracks from the series. Some tracks also allow more noise for a set number of days per year.

6.11 Exhaust: Free after the Kit exhaust manifold but the noise from the Race Car is not to exceed 118 dB
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Noise limits also apply to off road competition even at schoolboy level Four Strokes please note 2005 ALL BIKES MUST COME WITHIN THE NEW NOISE LIMIT OF 96db as of the 1st January 2005
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Track days are usually a lower limit than championship race events
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you are willing to pay £100 extra to join in with properracecars at Donnington on general test days.http://www.donington-park.co.uk/competitors/
Reply to
Peter Hill

There have always been formulae in racing, part of the reason for which has been to constrain speeds in the interest of safety....particularly of spectators, but since the 1970s also of drivers and trackside workers.

The days of 250 mph plus on the 'Muldoon' are long gone thanks to the introduction of chicanes, but cars still comfortably exceed 200...as do F1 cars on some circuits, despite the massive amount of downforce which modern racing cars generate. In US oval racing on super speedways, where heavily restricted cars are pretty much flat out all the time, average lap speeds can exceed 220 mph.

Interestingly, BAR Honda plans to run a current, legal F1 car at the Bonneville Salt Flats later this year to see just how fast it will go with the aerodynamics trimmed out. Estimate is that it should exceeed

250 mph.

Sad wanker.

David Betts ( snipped-for-privacy@motorsport.org.uk) The Classic Car Gallery:

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Reply to
David Betts

Not sure where speeds are these days, but back in the Birkin days.........

Well for example, Cobb and Bertram in the Napier Railton won the

1937 500 Kilometer race at Brooklans at an AVERAGE of 127 MPH.

Cobb had the outter circuit record at 143,44 mph

Bertram in the Barnato Hassan Bently did the kilometer at 142 MPH in 1935, and Cobb had the fastest recorded speed at 151.97mph in 1935

Clive Sherriff

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----- Original Message ----- From: "Autolycus" Newsgroups: uk.rec.cars.classic Sent: Thursday, July 14, 2005 10:53 PM Subject: Re: Tim Birkin bio? .............>

Reply to
tby

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