Petrol head thread!!!

[Dark Lightning]

HP/pound means a lot, but at those kinds of speeds, aerodynamics plays a huge role. Bike wins is no surprise.

[Asmodean]

Important conciderations in addition to HewlettPackards per pound are Newtonmeters of torque, surface friction to apply said torque and then slow the vehicle down and air friction, which... Yeah. A huge role, as stated above. F1 cars are designed to get sucked to the surface and rally cars are "just cars" - they practically become "reverse-sails" at those speeds.

[billy rubin]

motosickles are where its at

[Asmodean]

Hmm...

I wonder, could a enterprising evil inventor stick a W12 engine in an motorbicycle, and it still remain a motorbicycle?

[billy rubin]

they usually cut em down. ive seen pictures of two motorcycles poweredby V twin engines cut from rolls royce merlin V12s.

relly too nice a motor to chop up like that but people do

[Icarus]

Back in the day.....way back, several sprint cars used Ranger aircraft engines that had been cut down to four cylinders. These were big displacement slow turning engines. They had gobs of torque and could propel a properly geared race car very well. A machine shop In Tampa Florida, Heukle Machine Shop, was famous for making the conversion.

If that is not far enough back onto nostalgia, there was the Hispano Suiza aircraft engine that was used in race cars. It was affectionately known as the Hisso.

More than a few of the bike crazies have stretched the frame of a Harley and installed a second engine. Those beasts were used mostly as dragsters.

[billy rubin]

not just harleys!

this guy was a friend of mine

[Tank]

That is one seriously silly, but amazing, project!

[billy rubin]

it worked, too.

it did 142 the first time out on the first run.

the hard part about these things is phasing the two motors so the primary drives dont set up terminal standing waves

[Asmodean]

Well, they have twin engined aircraft, boats and cars. Hwy not motorbicycles, The Asmo says!

...Still though, have to wonder what a actual W-engine (Basically two V6-es side by side rather than one after the other) would be like to balance on two huwheels...

[billy rubin]

this one is a twin engine

[Asmodean]

..! It's an motorbichariotcycle. The Asmo wants it, needs it and plans on leaving this cruel, cruel world in a ball of fire on it.

[billy rubin]

yes. it looks foolish, dangerous, and lots of fun

[Asmodean]

Indeed. One simply must anticipate them bikes getting loose, going every which way and wreaking havoc of epic proportions.

[Tank]

this one is a twin engine

Wow!