I spent a couple of days on the Isle of Man recently, filming another one of our Pure Driving Experience vids with Dunlop.
I took a Mercedes-Benz A45 AMG, and more by luck than judgement we managed to persuade the powers that be on the island to close the fearsome mountain section of the TT course so that we could film on it to our hearts' content.
Which meant that I could drive the A45 pretty much as fast as I could, all day long, across one of the fastest, most dangerous sections of the world's fastest, most dangerous road racing course. So it was quite a day out, and has hopefully produced quite a good vid.
But on the journey home, and during the days that followed, I kept on wondering - might it be possible to drive a car faster than a motorbike around the 37.73 mile TT course?
You couldn't do it in a road car, of course, because as it stands the outright lap record is a frankly astonishing 17min 11.572sec, held by current TT champion John McGuinness. He did the time on a full house Honda CBR 1000 RR earlier this year, and it meant that he lapped the course at average speed of, deep breath, 131.671mph. Which is, of course, totally insane and is way beyond the capabilities of anything four wheeled that wears a set of number plates.
The current unofficial road car lap record, for example, is held by ex-rally driver Mark Higgins, who drove a "lightly modified" Subaru Impreza around the course in a whisker under 20 minutes a year or two ago, at an average speed of "just" 113mph.
But what about the four-wheeled equivalent of the record-holding Honda CBR 1000RR? Something like a high downforce Le Mans car? Could that go faster around the fast but quite bumpy TT course, or would it simply fall off the road in the attempt?
Or, on the other hand, what about one of the triumvirate of new hypercars that has recently been unleashed – LaFerrari, Porsche 918 and McLaren P1; would any of these be able to summon enough speed along the straight bits and grip around the twisty bits to threaten or even beat the McGuinness record?
I personally think they could get very close. The Le Mans car would have the best chance, obviously, but because of the bumps and the weird cambers in certain places you'd be that much more likely to stack it in the attempt.
Which realistically means it would be down to the McLaren et al to step up and give it a go.
I imagine that anyone who rides a motorbike and has watched the TT, or seen the film TT Closer to the Edge, is currently foaming at the mouth in disbelief that I could even suggest such a thing might be possible. But I'm not so sure. So maybe we should try to find out. As they say, watch this space...
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All this hot air assumes a car of unlimited cc and power against a bike adhering to the race criteria. Try permitting a 2 litre bike with a turbo and see if you can catch that. The fastest bike is in the race rules hence some non compliant car is neither here or there.
Sorry to burst all your bubbles.....lol
No doubt a guy like Seb Loeb
Course knowledge is of paramount importance and I frankly feel that there is car out there which is capable of a 131mph lap but I would love to watch Seb trying it!