[ST] Road & Track: 0 to 100mph to 0

["Rocky Mountain Motorcycle Holidays" <mike@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Road & Track did a piece in '95 pitting several exotic cars against a
Kawasaki ZX9R which really sparked my interest since I owned one before I
realised the sun rises in the East, from right over Hinckley. At the time
the ZX9R was a 535lb bike with about 115hp at the back wheel, which ran in
the low to mid 10's in the right hands (not mine). Great brakes for its day,
but not as good as the STs and not nearly as good as my Speed 4 (due to lack
of weight), or any of the current crop of sub-400lb litre bikes from Japan.

The fastest car was a modified Porshe 930 Turbo with over well over 600 hp.
Second was a Hot Rodded Shelby Cobra. The Lamborginis & Ferraris were
several seconds off the pace. The Corvette, Acura NSX and the rest were off
by another few seconds.

The Porshe was the fastest from 100 to 0 also with the Acura coming in
second. Rear and mid-engine...Interesting.

Road & Track enlisted one of the editors from Cycle World to ride the ZX9R.
Probably an outstanding rider with some track experience. The bike
absolutely squashed the cars from 0 - 100, but also beat the Porshe in the
braking marginally. I can't remember the exact numbers, but I think the Kawi
was under 14 seconds and the Porshe was over 16 for the whole 0 - 100 - 0.
What I liked best about reading the article was the fact that the bike had
come back to a stop before all but the two fastest cars had even hit 100mph.
Yeah Baby! I am sure that the latest generation of 180 hp, 380lb litre bikes
will knock another second or more off the ZX9Rs time, I doubt that the
latest STOCK exotics are going to be much faster than that hopped up Porshe.

Now before we assume that OUR bikes will out brake a car, I just read an
article in TWO (great mag from the UK) where they did a piece on braking
with pointers from Niall Mackenzie. One of their editors (with an admitted 3
years of experience) who I suspect is an OK to decent rider was outstopped
by the master Niall by 60 feet from a measly 46mph. Holy Shit! That is the
length of two buses! From only 46 mph.

My take on this. In the right hands a bike will outbrake most cars, but if
you think YOU can outbrake most cars, you'd better be a pretty damn good
rider especially in wet conditions. As soon as the snow melts around here,
I'm going to be practicing my braking.

All the Best,

Mike Ciebien
Rocky Mountain Motorcycle Holidays
www.rockymtnmoto.com



     *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *
      The ST/RS Mailing list is sponsored by Jack Lilley Ltd.
          http://www.TriumphNet.com/st/lilley for more info
   http://www.TriumphNet.com/st for ST, RS and Mailing List info

=-=-=-= Next Message =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=