Posted at: January 16, 2012
Related Topic(s): Street Racing I just came across some old issues of my favourite motorcycling magazine, Performance Bikes, a UK publication.
 In the December 2006 issue there is an article about the Cannonball Run for motorbikes which was run for the second time, in 2006. Performance Bikes magazine put together a bike to enter the race, a Kawasaki ZZR1400, with Dale Lomas to ride. Although the event is publically promoted as a navigation rally, it seems that some of the entrants including Dale were treating it as an all-out road race.
The "rally" started in Germany, went through Switzerland, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia and Austria, then finished in Germany.
However even before Dale and a group of other UK riders made it to the start, they were stopped before they boarded the UK to France ferry and warned because they were identified as Cannonballers!
Even before the start in Wurzburg, Germany one British rider's event came to an end after he was spotted travelling at 240km/h where the limit was 100km/h. After a long pursuit - 40km - he was fined heavily, his bike was impounded, and he was sent home on a plane. Other entrants are also stopped and warned, and searched thoroughly for route maps and other evidence.
For the start of the race, riders leave before the advertised starting time in an effort to avoid the police. This puts the riders in peak hour traffic.
After averaging 160km/h for the first hour, Dale Lomas get's pulled over and fined for speeding, unaware of a police helicopter following his progress. Less than an hour later he pays another fine, this time for racing on the road. His route card and maps also get confiscated.
Due to the police attention the time clocks are reset for day two for a level playing field. The journey through Switzerland and Italy is without the previous day's police problems, and Dale runs flat-out racing against his main competition, a group of Finnish riders. He is able to out-ride them in the dry but they are faster in the wet. At one point he has the ZZR at it's maximum of around 290km/h and slows to 240km/h to overtake a car in a narrow gap between the car and a tunnel wall. Then he realises that the car is actually the police and they want him to stop. He runs flat out to out run the police, hoping that his 50km of fuel is enough to lose his pursuers. It is but when he makes it to the next checkpoint he needs a new rear tyre.
The next, departing from Venice, Dale is running flat with another rider. They split traffic at over 280km/h and christen the hard shoulder as "the Cannonball Lane".
During a photo stop Dale has a minor accident which the ZZR survives with the exception of some superficial damage.
On the final day, Dale is set on beating the Finnish riders. He again runs flat out through Croatia and into Slovenia. Once in the lead he slows for nothing, passing a police Volkswagen Golf at 240km/h and then a second police car. But later he is followed by a black BMW keeping up with him at 220km/h on a twisty section of road. He is pursued for a few minutes and then reaches a police road block, which he runs through despite the police attempting to stop him. With just a single road ahead he knows his race is done, and hides before the police have a chance to catch him.
The "race" is "won" by one of the Finnish riders and the final statistics for the 75 competitors are 8 arrests, 4 bikes impounded, 109 tickets received, 13,238 Euros in fines, 6 crashes, 2 broken bones, and 5200km.
The rally was again run in 2007, but it appears that the Swiss police were ready and were not going to put up with the same type of riding as the previous years event. In the December 2007 issue of Performance Bikes I found the story. About an hour and a half into the event 21 of the entrants were stopped by the Swiss police, whether or not they had committed any road offences. The event was stopped, and the other riders made their way home, trying to avoid capture at all cost.
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Posted at: December 16, 2011
Related Topic(s): New Cars I can never understand why the automotive world has gone along with the way that rotary engine displacement is calculated.
The 13B and RENESIS engines claim a capacity of around 1.3 litres.
My opinion is that these engines have a capacity of around 3.9 litres.
Let's look at the facts for the engine from the Mazda RX-8.
1. The combustion chamber size is 654cc.
2. There are two rotors.
3. Each rotor has three combustion chambers.
So 654cc times two rotors times three combustion chambers is 3,924cc... 3.9 litres!
I guess Mazda (and other Wankel engine manufacturers) are claiming this capacity because it is only possible that two combustion chambers are combustible (in contact with the spark plug) at any time. That's fair enough, but I don't know any six cylinder engines that fire all six cylinders at the same time.
Need more facts...
The RX-8 produces 170 kW of power, 211 Nm of torque, and has a combined fuel consumption figure of 12.9 l/100km.
A Ford Falcon with a 4.0 litre 6 cylinder engine has 195 kW of power, 391 Nm of torque, and has a combined fuel consumption figure of 9.9 l/100km.
A Toyota Yaris with 1.3 litre engine has 63 kW of power, 121 Nm of torque, and has a combined fuel consumption figure of 5.7 l/100km.
Do the RX-8 specifications look closer to the Falcon or the Yaris?
Hopefully you will now agree with me and join me in my (fairly silent) protest against this injustice!
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Posted at: December 14, 2011
Related Topic(s): Street Racing For fans of the Cannonball Run, Gumball 3000, Bullrun and illegal cross-country driving, here is my review of three books on these topics.
  
The first title, Cannonball!: World's Greatest Outlaw Road Race, is about the original Cannonball Run. That's right, there was a race before the famous movie.
The race was run several times in the USA during the 1970s and started as a form of protest against the introduction of the national 55mph speed limit. It was intended to prove that skilled drivers could drive cross-country at high speeds in safety.
The book is written by the organiser of the race, Brock Yates, but also features recounts of the race from the original competitors. This makes it a real interesting read in that you get to learn about the organisation of the event as well as how the race went for the various entrants.
One of the most interesting and surprising facts I discovered when reading this book was that a lot of the things in the movie (which is a favourite of mine) were based on real events. I think if the movie started with "Based on a true story" noone would believe it. But at least a few of the teams in the movie were based on actual entrants, such as the ambulance, priests and the "just married" motorcyclists. There was even an all woman team although they weren't driving a Lamborghini Countach.
There are plenty of stories about run-ins with the police, mechanical problems and great stories about what it is like to drive flat out for kilometre after kilometre (well, mile after mile) for around 35 hours or more.
Another title covers the 2004 running of the Gumball Rally, which is an annual event in the spirit of the Cannonball Run, but not actually a race. The Gumball Rally is meant to be a navigation challenge within the road rules with a huge party each night after the days driving. Although the organisers discourage any illegal driving each year many drivers cop fines or jail time for various driving offences.
Our Gumball Rally: 3000 Miles, 3 Countries, 65 Ferraris, Only 1 Volvo is written by journalist Clement Wilson and his driving partner Richard Dunwoody, a retired jockey. It tells the story of how the two got together and came up with the idea of running in the rally, securing a car, and their adventures in the rally.
The car they chose was a Volvo V70R (not that they had much choice), which was an unusual choice given that most of their competitors were in exotic supercars. But if you read the book you will find that the more discreet Volvo did have it's advantages at times.
They drove hard, they partied hard, then they crashed the Volvo. My favourite part (and probably most of the entrant's favourite part) was when they were driving through part of Africa where they were given free reign by the King to drive however they wanted. This of course meant that most drove absolutely flat out and resulted in some major accidents.
I really enjoyed the book and it is a great insight into the event. It's not just about cars and driving but the author frequently sidetracks to other interesting things just about life. And I say author because I suspect that Richard Dunwoody didn't do much writing - the book is almost exclusively from Clement Wilson's perspective.
Lastly, I also read The Driver: True Life Adventures of an Underground Road Racer by Gumball 3000 and Bullrun legend, Alexander Roy.
Although I wasn't a big fan of the writing style and was often disappointed by stories that stopped short or should have been included; this is a riveting read.
Particular favorite moments were (of course) "The Battle of Rome", and the transcontinental record attempts.
A highly recommended book for fans of this form of "motorsport"!
Now I just wish there was a real* Cannonball Run Australia!
Cannonball!: World's Greatest Outlaw Road Race
By Brock Yates
Published by Motorbooks
ISBN: 0760316333
ISBN-13: 9780760316337
Our Gumball Rally: 3000 Miles, 3 Countries, 65 Ferraris, Only 1 Volvo
By Clement Wilson and Richard Dunwoody
Published by Virgin Books
ISBN: 075350992X
ISBN-13: 9780753509920
The Driver: True Life Adventures of an Underground Road Racer
By Alexander Roy
Published by Edbury Press
ISBN-13: 9780091924904
*There was a Cannonball Run in Australia in 1994 which was organised by Allan Moffat. It certainly wasn't an outlaw race but did have high speed events on closed off roads in the Northern Territory. Unfortunately the event was marred when several people were killed after a Ferrari F40 left the road and hit a group of the event staff. See www.cannonballrun.info.
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