I just finished reading Doug?s article on how fun the miata is on a twisty road. I can imagine it's a hoot BUT if you really want to have fun on the twisties, you gotta have a hot bike. I'm not talkin a dressed Harley or a Honda Goldwing. I'm talking 600's or liter bikes, Busas and the like.
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OK, I've got to bring this back to cars. A few years back a bunch of friends and I were staying at the Topoco Lodge at Deal?s Gap. (If you don?t know what Deal?s Gap is, look it up!)
It was Saturday night and I went inside to get more ice for our beer. All the car guys were sitting in the parking lot talking smack about the day?s runs. Keep in mind, these are all guys who I raced with and there was a mix of Miatas, Z3?s, Boxster S, and one new STi. All of us where running street tires to boot.
As I walked in, I noticed three new Triumphs parked by the door. These were all race bikes, not cruisers. After grabbing some ice I invited the three bikers to join us for a beer. One of them commented, ?I thought you car guys didn?t like us biker types.? To which I replied, ?We are all gear heads, come on and have a cold one.?
Walking out, the 20 something pointed to my car and said, ?Whose car is that?? I?m thinking Oh ****, did I run him down and get too close. Anyway, I admitted it was mine and asked him why he was asking.
He replied that in the morning we were lined up to exit the parking lot, fastest to slowest. I was in front of the line and when we pulled out, he said he wacked his throttle trying to pass the entire line because he didn?t want to get stuck behind a bunch of slow cars. (I never knew he was back there.) I made the first turn at the base of the dam before he could catch me and kept going. He went on to say that he couldn?t catch me and that I wasn?t pulling away and that had never happened to him before.
I was thinking no big deal; I would regularly run down and pass crotch rockets in The Gap. It was then that the older gentleman introduced me to Greg. He was the VP of Marketing for Triumph N.A. and his day job was racing their bikes. He was on a completely tricked out 650, custom suspension, built motor, race tires, etc. Apparently when I walked in they were trying to figure out how it was that he couldn?t catch me with is bike.
The next morning three of us gave them rides through The Gap and at some point Greg looked over at me and said, after we flew through the Gravity Cavity he understood. While I couldn?t out accelerate the bikes I didn?t have to slow down for the turns. He said I was easily doubling his speeds through the turns. Keep in mind, in The Gap all the turns are on camber and never once did I spin a tire or slide the rear end out. However, I was hauling butt and promptly left the other cars way behind. And for the record, my car had been tested up to 1.2 G?s with the race tires and the street tires, the brakes were not stock, and the very sticky street tires I was running would only last me about 10K miles of fun driving.
Some time back I gave up going to The Gap because there were just too many racer wanabees on both bikes and in cars to make it any fun. That and the cops have gotten serious about slowing people down in there.
Remember, the fastest part of any car (or bike) is the lose nut behind the wheel. A good driver and take a crappy car and make it perform. A bad driver in a good car is a danger to everyone. A crappy driver in a crappy car is pure entertainment.
All that said, a good bike would be a blast. I just wonder how long it would be until I would kill myself.