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lame comparison (Top Gear: Ariel Atom vs 600RR)

Burning1 said:
I understand motorcycles better than cars, so Charles would be a better judge of how moving around weight might affect a car.

My understanding is that moving weight would have a pretty significant impact on chassis stability, although race cars are typically set-up to have minimal body roll in cornering. I strongly suspect that for/aft weight balance, and weight centralization are going to be more important for a car than whether weight could be shifted laterally.

I strongly suspect that the grip you lose by unloading the inside tire is gained back by loading the outside tire.
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Is this information similar to the book you mentioned?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_and_motorcycle_dynamics

This stuff interested me, so I'll probably pick up that book later.

You get diminishing returns in terms of grip when you put more weight on a tire. So it's better to have 200lbs on each tire than 100lbs on the inside tires and 300lbs on the outside tires.
 
Via our traqmate data logging, I can tell you our, 'life's good racing' 2000 camaro pulls 1.4g's through turn 10 at T-hill. There's no downforce additions, as we tune the car for top end speed.

The Porsche Cup cars regularly pull high 1:40's during the 25 hour enduro each december. But those are running the bypass, so we'd need to add about 2 seconds. The best I've personally seen them run was a 1:48, but most believe they are faster still. That just happened to also be the speed of the Radical that was chasing... ;)
 
SLu said:
I think a bike's biggest advantage in a turn is having 4' more pavement to maneuver. The next big advantage is a rider's the ability to move the CG to the inside of a turn and lower to the ground.
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I'm thinking a bike's advantage is power-to-weight ratio....we got streetbikes with turn signals making 200 horsepower yet only weigh a bit over 400 lbs. Mind boggling. :wtf
 
I loved the episode of TG where they put a (I think) Prius against a (I think) BMW on their test track. The only rules were that the Prius had to drive flat-out and the BMW just had to keep up. After a few laps, they checked the fuel mileage and found that the BMW had gotten better economy than the Prius. Their point was that it's not what you drive, but how you drive. Just a funny way of making the point though.

EDIT: Here it is:
[youtube]dKTOyiKLARk[/youtube]

Dave
 
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The 500bhp, 1000lb Ariel Atom might have something to say about power to weight.

On the other hand, I'm sure Top Gear only used one of the 300hp supercharged 4-banger models.

Of course, the Atom's real problem is that it's no more useful than a motorcycle as daily transport, but quite a bit more expensive! ;)
 
reidconti said:
The 500bhp, 1000lb Ariel Atom might have something to say about power to weight.

On the other hand, I'm sure Top Gear only used one of the 300hp supercharged 4-banger models.

Of course, the Atom's real problem is that it's no more useful than a motorcycle as daily transport, but quite a bit more expensive! ;)
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Actually it is even less useful then a motorcycle. It's a car so you can't lane split. But it completely open with no air conditioning, no radio, etc. Also the seat is low, so basically you will be inhaling directly the fumes from other cars as you are stuck in grid lock traffic.
 
UDRider said:
Actually it is even less useful then a motorcycle. It's a car so you can't lane split. But it completely open with no air conditioning, no radio, etc. Also the seat is low, so basically you will be inhaling directly the fumes from other cars as you are stuck in grid lock traffic.
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And here were back to the thread's original intention, making lame comparisons.
 
Aluisious said:
And here were back to the thread's original intention, making lame comparisons.
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I thought the Top Gear episode was funny not lame. In any case if I had the money I would own it so I can take it to the track.
 
The veyron really isn't a track car though. It's just fast, and sure as hell isn't practical.
 
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Blind_Io said:
You guys might prefer this article comparing a Bugatti Veyron to the S1000RR:

http://www.insideline.com/bugatti/v...ugatti-veyron-16-4-vs-2010-bmw-s-1000-rr.html

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Holy shit... :shocker Sounds like that car is more expensive to maintain and drive than a military jet! But back to the OP, lots of cars and lots of places where a car can be competetive if not faster than bikes. Certainly takes less skill to drive quickly than ride quickly IMO. I think that cycle world or some other bike mag actually did an article with a viper and sport bike on the road (schwantz also raced a viper or vette on a track). The Viper could clearly be driven quicker on an unknown twisty road with less pucker factor. But I still prefer bikes.
 
Well now that we're talking about Bugatti Veyron's and Fighter jets....

[youtube]7NZ9X9A2efA[/youtube]
 
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