Your Road Kills + Camper Vans

[zimm]

there was a test in a mag a couple of years ago, R6 versus lotus exige or something, round a twisty track with full data logging, they looked at braking points, acceleration, max speed, corner speed at each turns apex etc etc etc ..

end result, pretty much a draw, both bike and car maintained the same "minimum speed" in each turn, but the car spent less time in each corner as it could brake later, hold the same corner speed, and get the power on sooner.. however the bike murdered it on acceleration and that would even things out.. only place the bike had a tangible advantage was in sweeping bends where it was basically straight lining everything and keeping the power on, and the car was having to turn one way then the other..

bike v car ? depends on the bike, and the car, and the driver/rider and the location.

for the money though, its always going to be the bike that comes out on top..

[Xphyral]

A car will always beat a bike on braking into a corner and speed able to be carried around that corner - even without downforce.

That's purely down to the extra grip from 4 wheels..

Again, it's not as clear cut as that. Yes, the car has more rubber in contact with the road. However it also has about 5x the mass, so the tyres need to generate 5x the force to stop it, and 5x the force to get it round the same radius corner.

and bikes are usually equipped with high end rubber, how many cars can say the same?

the lotus exige is a "special car"
it says f*ck you, who cares about top speed when i'm a go kart with fairings.

[Jamz]

and bikes are usually equipped with high end rubber, how many cars can say the same?

Exactly!

Put a Fiat Uno on tyres that only last 3000 miles and it will corner a shitload faster than any R1.

[Xphyral]

and bikes are usually equipped with high end rubber, how many cars can say the same?

Exactly!

Put a Fiat Uno on tyres that only last 3000 miles and it will corner a shitload faster than any R1.

i wouldnt go that far, it'd probably understeer quite horribly into a hedge if it could even get to the same entry speed as the r1 or just flip itself onto it's roof due to the marshmallows it has for suspension when it tries to change direction too fast.


i said you need a special kind of car to catch a bike in the twisties, your average girly cosmopolitan coffee shop car isnt that special. neither are:
people carriers
4x4's
Volvo's..
luxury business saloons
boy racers in their mums corsa

anything american with leaf springs

theres a lot more than just tyres that affect traction

[zimm]

i purposefully put crap tyres on my camper van .. if it had any grip it would tip over.

[deviant]

the lotus exige is a "special car"
it says f*ck you, who cares about top speed when i'm a go kart with fairings.

Put a Fiat Uno on tyres that only last 3000 miles and it will corner a shitload faster than any R1.

i wouldnt go that far, it'd probably understeer quite horribly into a hedge if it could even get to the same entry speed as the r1 or just flip itself onto it's roof due to the marshmallows it has for suspension when it tries to change direction too fast.

exactly. but go on Jamz, try it anyway, just for a laugh.

i purposefully put crap tyres on my camper van .. if it had any grip it would tip over.

LOL. what is the van? I ran a VW T25 for years, no grip at all, but beautiful progressive rear end slides in the rain

[zimm]

LOL. what is the van? I ran a VW T25 for years, no grip at all, but beautiful progressive rear end slides in the rain

cool ! thats the later one isnt it ?

mine's a 1968 commer pb1500 autosleeper !



looking a bit sorry for herself atm after 2 seasons in the alps.



i've never driven anything thats SO controllable when completely sideways.. its like a drift car in slow motion

[superman]

heres a car that will be fun i recon. anyone seen it yet, made by KTM.

http://www.autocar.co.uk/News/NewsArtic ... rs/223615/

[zimm]

x-bow ... mmm



think i'd rather have an ariel atom ...

actually, what i REALLY want is an exige with a powertec V8 in it ..

[Gemini]

i want one of these...



dunno what the car is, and who cares!

gem

[crushedlizard]

...and let's not forget about aerodynamics

You didn't sleep in that right?

[zimm]

from jan 05 to may 06 ... yup

c'mon, no rent, 30 euro's a week for food n gas, fantastic view, snowboarding everyday for 4 months of the year, summers spent downhill mountain-biking/rock-climbing or hacking round alpine roads on the zx4 .. (which is hiding in the buried vw transporter behind our van .. )

with labouring work building chalet's paying 20 euro's an hour cash i only had to work 3 months a year to cover it all.

[Gemini]

i'd love one of these, splitscreen vw camper...



but the mrs would kill me!

gem

[zimm]

yeh, pretty, but silly money these days.. and .. you cant really get a motorbike in the back, which you can with the commer as the engine is in the right place

i need to get mine fixed up.. gonna use it for going to track days etc ..

[deviant]

i've never driven anything thats SO controllable when completely sideways.. its like a drift car in slow motion

brilliant photo.

the T25 is the last of the rear engined transporters, that was built from about '78 to '92 - the big square ones. Mine (strictly speaking my dad's) was a 1989 2.1ltr petrol one, so about as quick as they got. It had about 100k on it when I learnt to drive in 99-2000. I then put about 80,000 miles on it until one of the pistons disintegrated in late 2005-ish. I crashed it once (into the back of an escort - causing a slight crack in the bumper of the van and about £1k's worth of damage to the escort). My little sis put *huge* dents in both sides in a multistorey car park (hadn't quite got the hang of how much a long vehicle trails, especially when you're sat over the front wheels). And it just kept going.

I miss it

It's actually still sat in the back of a barn at my parents place. £500 and a couple of weekends would see it back together with new pistons, barrels, bearing shells, exhaust, etc - basically as new. Trouble is, neither me nor my dad really need it at the moment, and neither of us has time to just fix it for the sake of it. Maybe one day...

@Gem. Splitties are cool (with various mods to make them go and stop a bit better than they did in the 1950s), however a decent one is utterly unattainable - I've seen what's basically a rusty bodyshell change hands for five figure sums. Even a decent bay-window is a lot of money now.