Motorcycles are very good on outright acceleration either in straight line or exiting a corner but cornering speed is limited by grip. Outright higher power of a performance car will win on a long enough straight. But on the public road a motorbike has many advantages, it's narrow width and high acceleration means it can overtake in so many more places where cars owners are left thinking "that's impossible". On 13ft wide carriageway using verge to white line a bike can open a bend from a tight 50ft inside radius to a wide 94ft, while a 5ft wide car gets 77ft thus any grip advantage has gone. Also on anything other than billiard table smooth race tracks the bike wins as the car loses grip.
Going fast with a pillion passenger just isn't smart.
But the really impressive thing on a track is a 1926 Morgan 3 wheeler Aero sports. In 1990 the Morgan that won the vintage champs was only
0.1 sec/lap slower round Mallory Park than the the works RS500 that won the BTCC round.
-- Peter Hill Spamtrap reply domain as per NNTP-Posting-Host in header Can of worms - what every fisherman wants. Can of worms - what every PC owner gets!
The biggest engine I have seen in the UK from the factory in a 7 is the LV350 that runs the 5.7 Chevy lump, it's basically a strengthened version of the car I'm building.
I can think of two local tracks where the cornering required would more than wipe out any straight line advantage you might have.
A fairly basic 1.6 xflow powered Locaterfield can show the way to a 600cc bike around a twisty track. Two driven wheels versus one. Two steering road wheels versus one.
Any fool can go fast in a straight line :-).......
Thing is we are here talking about stock 600cc bike, against the any of the motley array of spammed up elderly family saloons, that seem to be favoured by posters on this forum!
Moto GP or F1 doesnt really bear much relevance to either does it?..................
Each to their owm Ken, I'm quite fond of my allegedly spammed up family saloon. It appeals to me far more than what you seem to spend your life doing.
If I liked leather and had a propensity to effectively mingle naked with all the other family hatchbacks on the road and didn't mind dying, I'd probably have a motorbike.
A well ridden stock 600cc bike would more than likely be faster round a track than most of the cars owned by the regulars of this group but then bikes aren't cars really are they?
I like cameras, but I probably couldn't ride one down a hill as fast as a mountain bike.
No, you're right, comparing cars to bikes is pretty pointless.
Yea I never really get this argument, they're TOTALLY different things. Thankfully, I'm able to ride/drive both so I could beat Ken on either :-) Someone lend me a bike and a fast car...
In news: snipped-for-privacy@individual.net, Fraser Johnston wrote something quite bizarre, possibly in an effort to confuddle the world. It went like so;
I like Elfins, but I think the streamliner is pretty ugly.
In news:d1uVf.13577$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe3-gui.ntli.net, DervMan wrote something quite bizarre, possibly in an effort to confuddle the world. It went like so;
Yup, they revved like f*ck for a Pinto as well. Smooth little lump.
Technically a complete and utter lump of shit. With 16 cylinders it's got too much head surface in relation to power it makes so needs lots of cooling. To compound this it's got alternate exhaust ports that extend from inner cylinders to manifold face that are almost 6" long though the head that heat the head. And the dickheads (I can't think that they could possibly have engineering degrees or professional titles like .Ing) wonder why they have cooling problems. The cylinders with short exhaust ports have long inlet ports though the head that heat the incoming air, also very bad as causes detonation. Looking at it as 4 2L turbo's 250bhp is just par for 1999 models, these days a good production 2L 4 pot turbo should make 150bhp/L (2001 SR20VET got
140bhp/L). So the Veyron's 125bhp/L is about 200bhp short or nearly a decade out of date.
It was only made cos some idiot made a schoolboy brag at a press day. "Look at our wonderful V8, ve vill make a W16 with 1000bhp".
Far cheaper, a 2JA Supra engine can give 1050bhp at the wheels (over
1250bhp at fly). Veyron's under par 1000bhp at flywheel can't yield more than 850bhp (more like 800bhp) at the wheels, a 3 Liter 6 pot makes 8 liter W16 look foolish and unnecessary. "Hey look here I've got more money than brains".
Based on Supra's output 400bhp/L as a good benchmark for tuned engines. At 8L the Veyron should be able to kick out 3200bhp. Can't get close as big end bearings have been thinned down to 15mm wide to get 4 rods in the space so you can't tune past 1280bhp (according to factory). They would have done better to take 2 1.8T and make a 3.6 V8 out of them. Less head surface, no idiot long ports though head, no cooling problems. Over 1ft shorter engine, 1ft shorter car or space for proper luggage. Engine could have a proper top cover between roof and tail instead of an open hot pit and reduce drag from
0.36 to 0.33 saving fuel and giving higher top speed (over 275mph!). It would weigh about 100kg less. A properly engineered 1000bhp car would be so much better than the result of idiotic adherence to specification of a schoolboy brag.
-- Peter Hill Spamtrap reply domain as per NNTP-Posting-Host in header Can of worms - what every fisherman wants. Can of worms - what every PC owner gets!
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