| Author | Message | ||
     Rocketman |
I know the Atom has been spoken about before on the BadWeB so thought this might be well received. Taken from BBC's Top Gear Ariel Atom Rocket | ||
| Spuds |
holy cow!!! not gonna stand up and say that the guy on the bike couldn't have been riding aggressively enough, blah blah, blah, BUT as far as a four wheeled toy goes--- that looks like a blast!!! I want!!! | ||
| G234146 |
Amazing Video!!! Thnx Rocket!  | ||
| Rocketman |
Yeah it is pretty good isn't it! Glad you like it. Rocket | ||
| Ratyson |
That thing is bad ass.. Me likey! And I would imagine that the gas mileage is in the 40's somewhere considering the light weight. (that is, as long as you can keep your foot out of it.) | ||
| M1combat |
If they've got the Stig runnin their cars around that little stretch of tarmac they really need to get someone like McWilliams to run the bikes... The Atom is a VERY fast car, but it's not as fast as a comparable priced bike... Maybe on race tires... | ||
| New12r |
I like it! Nice vid. | ||
| Borrowedbike |
hey, I'm fat and I still ride a bike. | ||
| Mortarmanmike120 |
Absolutely awesome... I WILL have one someday. | ||
| Liquorwhere |
I have seen that series before, excellent, I think the one I had seen previous had a GSXR 1000 with the guy on it, racing some blonde girl in a car...I can't remember which car, but she beat him by like a few tenths of a second...good series, great viddie Rocket | ||
| Wolf102 |
put that car against a fire bolt and see what happens | ||
| 12r |
It doesn't matter what bike is used, a car will always have more grip/cornering speed/better braking. The only advantage a bike has is acceleration and very low speed manoeuvrability | ||
| Blublak |
Last time I looked.. I think in the US they run close to $80K for the full on version. So that could be a little sticking point for some of us.. I too would love to have one though.. a few bolts and it's a track car.. or a street car.. your choice.. not bad huh? | ||
| Glitch |
There was one on the Dragon not too long ago. There's a picture of it on Killboy. | ||
| Xl1200r |
It doesn't matter what bike is used, a car will always have more grip/cornering speed/better braking. The only advantage a bike has is acceleration and very low speed manoeuvrability Not sure I agree with this... Handing is a tough one because there are some yahts of a bike out there, and some care (like the Atom) that are just amazing. But braking? Bikes (in general) will brake faster than cars (in general). And grip doesn't really change it since you need way less contact area on a 400 lbs bike than you do on a 3000 lbs car. Cornering speed all depends on the rider. The typical benchmark for a world-class sports car is 1 lateral g. I believe on a bike that's a 45* lean angle (bike and rider combined). Most bikes can manage this with the right tires, no? | ||
| Hammeroid |
Top Gear kicks *ss | ||
| Glitch |
I've heard good arguments on both sides. To me you would have to be talking about a particular car and particular motorcycle, generally speaking wouldn't work in this case. | ||
| Hammeroid |
Check out the episode of top gear where a blond chick tries to do the Nurburgring in a diesel ford transit van in under ten minutes. She passes bmws and bikes. | ||
| Glitch |
Found it! http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=top+gear+Nur burgring&hl=en | ||
| Barker |
Like Glitch once told me, "It's not the arrow, its the indian." | ||
| Henrik |
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgfTG1wCHtg I've seen this one before, but looks like a hoot to drive/ride. Henrik | ||
| Blake |
What a cool little sports car! Sure looks like a lot of fun on the track. As to the car versus bike contest, good grief, who was riding the bike? He looked like he was teetering on ice in the turns; no lean angle. And why a 600cc bike? That little race was rigged in favor of the car right from the start. Snail on his Busa would have layed waste to that car!  "The only advantage a bike has is acceleration and very low speed maneuverability." What XL1200R said. Plus I'd add that a bike provides a two wheel single track footprint, in effect making the roadway that much wider and curves that much greater in diameter thus able to be negotiated at higher speeds. So we have as advantages of sport bike over sport car the following:
Only seven advantages then. Riding a bike is almost like flying. A fast car is way fun, but it ain't comparable to the feeling you get flying (almost literally) around the track on a motorcycle. | ||
| Xring |
The bike vs. car debate will never end, but remember when Motorcyclist (I think) used to do a car vs. bike shootout, on the track? I remember at least one year that had a new 'Vette vs. FZR1000. The bike won, but not by much. The car maintained higher corner speeds. | ||
| Firebolteric_ma |
WOW not one gear nazi noticed he wasn't wearing crap but a seat belt? IF he lost it he would have been dead. Funny I say. Good Video though. I want one! | ||
| T9r |
Fifth Gear: Lamborghini Gallardo vs Ducati 999 http://www.car2max.com/video/5th_Gear/5th%20Gear%2 0-%20Murcielago%20vs.%20Ducati%20999.wmv Bike Wins | ||
| Wolfridgerider |
Bike VS Car I will put my vote with the car. Cars hold the record lap times at Mid Ohio Sports Car Coarse, I shift cart held it for a long time but then the cars got a little faster. Race Cars VS Race Bikes and the cars win..... I like the video, makes me want to start looking into the Lotus kit car http://www.angelfire.com/biz6/stalkerv6/kitcar.htm l | ||
| Littlefield |
Of course it depends on the car. I forget how many cornering g's the open wheeled cars pull but it's something like 4 or 5. Top fuel dragsters average 5 g's straight line acceleration. I guess it's a combination of down force and lots of rubber with a coefficient of friction more than 1. At our local track the bike record is 1:35. A champ car team came out for some testing and was running 1:11's. BTW, I heard an interesting analogy on dragsters the other day. If a Calloway Corvette passed the quarter mile start line at 200 mph and a top fuel dragster started just as it passed, the dragster would get to the finish line first. That is awesome acceleration. | ||
| Blake |
Cars utilizing aerodynamic downforce are far and away the fastest vehicles around a road course. Lacking the downforce, it would be a much a closer race against a MotGP machine. Drag strips are coated with the stickiest substance known to man. Friction is unbelievable. It would be interesting to see how quickly a top fuel dragster could run down a quarter mile of regular old asphalt. | ||
| Firebolteric_ma |
TOP FUEL.....  | ||
| Xl1200r |
Lotus Kit Car Man, nothing says high-performance like a set of stock 2WD Chevy S-10 wheels! | ||
| M1combat |
Yeah... Add downforce and the cars pull away. No downforce and the bikes have it generally. Of course, you can't put an SV650 against a no wing DTM car or something like that, but for the most part the bikes win unless you add wings. This holds true at the top level as well. F1 vs. Moto-GP has the cars roughly 20 seconds faster on the typical circuits (Imola, Sepang, China, Quatar). Move to something like GTR though, and the bikes are faster. The GT cars have a LOT less aero help. If you ever watch overhead video from a helicopter of F1 cars making the 130-R turn at Suzuka (after Senna did the math  )... They've GOTTA be breaking the laws of physics... | ||
| Xb9er |
I wonder how much 29,000 pounds is compared to the american dollar? | ||
| Just_john |
About $56,500 | ||
| Spike |
It's definitely a never-ending debate, but I'd say the bike has less advantages than those listed above. The biggest one would be the braking. Unless you're riding something like a Gurney Alligator, the bike will always be limited by the tendency to endo. The car on the hand is only limited by the available traction. The car will always be fighting more mass, but the the car has the ability to add substantially more tire. Sure a street car vs. a street bike is no contest, but that's because the street bikes these days are getting so close to their race counterparts. When we see street-legal supercars go up against street-legal sport bikes the gap closes considerably, and the car sometimes comes out ahead. What I'd really like to see is a Formula 1 car with the wings removed go up against a MotoGP bike. | ||
| Murdoch |
Check out this Top Gear Challenge, Quite funny, check out the bloke in the car http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wE925jbUT7c |
