Great show tonight; he comes first in class in the PPIH on a rough-running, ever so slightly bonkers, turbo'd bike.

Defo' worth catching on 4OD if you missed it.

I am in awe of Mr Martin.

 

Agreed - no lack of commitment,

 

With a decent haircut he could shave seconds. Or without, and some black dye, stand in for the late Alvin Stardust

 

Just flicked it on as he started the bike.....BEAST

 

Top bloke, like watching his shows

 

Yep that was good
Can't believe he didn't test that bike before shipping then finding the fueling problem
Also surprised he didn't get a games console set up to learn "track"
Sometimes I think he likes to not do stuff like that just to add a bit more risk

 

I would guess the fuelling thing was due to the low oxygen content up there - not something they'd have been able to replicate here?

 

O2 available would be about 2/3rds of ground level at the 4300m peak. Ok he could have researched e.g. Google and he could have rigged an airtight room and depleted the oxygen, then rigged up a lamda sensor to read the room O2 level. Easy with hindsight but his wonderful backstreet garage attitude and humour 'give it a go' is what helps to make the programme. What a huge contrast with the Top Gear snotty right wing toffs Only a proper mechanic would buy a part built bike on the beauty of the welding.

 

I love his matter-of-fact style and what-you-see-is-what-you-get.

Clearly a very clever individual and one with an empathy and talent for anything mechanical. He's shown this on previous occasions, when he was learning to fly the glider ,and when machining components for the Spitfire re-creation, the experts were clearly more than very impressed with his ability.

I'd like to see Guy get a practice drive in an F1 car. If he was anything like Valentino Rossi, he'll be quick. IIRC Rossi was given a go in Schumacher's Ferrari and came within nano seconds of the Schuey's lap time at Fiorano. Rossi dismissed it as boring...

 

But that is only half the story. The o2 up high is lacking because of a drop in pressure. A turbo has a wastegate set to a certain pressure. Thus, the turbo restores power and you get the same at 14k feet as you do at 0ft The added benefit is that since the air is thinner and drag is the square of speed, there are massive gains to be had thanks to the reduced air resistance!

As for the oxygen chamber - all he needed was a bin bag with a small hole in the bottom. Breath into that and job done - exactly the same effect.

Lets be clear though, he could have gone up there on an S1000R with a turbo and blown away his time all with minimal fuss.

I'm all for the whole custom thing, but if something is proven and does 95% of the job, you take it and use it.

He does need a haircut though. His helmet doesn't sit properly at all. They say than Simoncelli was hampered by that in his fatal accident.