Ducati Sporting Club UK > General > Idle Chat > Mugged....By a CAR !!!

[Jools]

Riding back home last night after the North Bucks meeting at Chichely, I decided to just take the direct motorway route home. Got off at J13 and headed up through Ridgmont towards Ampthill.

Going through the 30 mph limit in Ridgmont I came up behind two cars. As the 30 limit ends, there is a short straight bit followed by a lovely left hand sweeper and I didn't want to get hung up behind two cars through there. The short straight usually works to my advantage because it's an easy overtake for a bike, but usually too short for a car to think about, so as the 30 limit ended I thought "right, I just blast past both of these boxes now..." then as I pulled out, the car following the first pulled out to overtake as well. "Damn" I thought "that's messed my run up to the left hand sweeper" and eased off the throttle to wait patiently behind the car. Then I whacked the gas open again as I realised that the ordinary looking car in front was seriously quick...I was pinned through the gears chasing the damn thing and it was outdragging me...through the left hand sweeper at track day pace and the thing was still getting away (although he did run very wide on the exit). A spirited chase ensued and after I had got over my surprise at how quick this thing was, managed to maintain the gap.

I caught him again as he had to slow for a queue of cars behind an artic (wouldn't have done otherwise) and I had enough time to read what it was..A Nissan Skyline GT-R if that means anything to anybody.

I know I've only got an ST2, but even a mere 85 bhp is enough to see off most cars this side of Porsche Turbos and the like.

[domski]

Nice car - chauffered by a computer :P

I believe it's fairly easy to get them up to 1000bhp and more

[Edited on 8-6-2005 by domskidue]

[keefer]

im afraid there are plenty of tricked up cars that will see of 85 ponies. especially in a straight line

[TP]

GTR Skyline - awesome bits of kit. Very fast.

They started entering them in the touring car championship in Australia, along with the Cosworth turbo's and were banned! They took everything to a whole new level and Ford and Holden stopped selling V8's to the masses while they bought fast 6 cylinders!

[JPM]

Skyline..... Oh yes!!

[AK]

mmm I loikes Skylines - we had one a while back, then followed it by having a Pulsar GTIR - both went like stink

[Gizmo]

I had a similar experience a few weeks ago down Hartside, Subaru Imprezza driven by a lunatic, caught up to him on the top section and and he accelerated hard, he hit the first blind left hander flat out and on wrong side of road , he set up on wrong side of road again for a blind right I just backed off, the guy was an idiot and could have killed anyone coming up, I didn't want that on my conscience so made it clear I wasn't playing. Theres always times when cars are faster than bikes.

You'd need a quick bike to keep up with a well tuned Skyline

[Jools]

Originally posted by keefer
im afraid there are plenty of tricked up cars that will see of 85 ponies. especially in a straight line

Sure, there are plenty of tricked up cars about, and I'm well aware that my ST isn't the fastest thing on the planet, but at 300 Kg with me on it, 85 bhp equates to about 250 bhp/tonne. So, with an average sports car weighing about 1500 kilos, you're talking about cars with about 375-ish bhp... Porsche, TVR, Ferrari...Not what I would've expected from something that looks like a repmobile.

I'm not sure about the straight line bit either. I can stick with an Imprezza in a straight line (well, a normally tuned one anyway) but I wouldn't fancy my chances around the twisties.

[Edited on 8-6-2005 by Jools]

Skyline GT-R, yes mate seriously ferking quick.

Having worked a lot over the years in Japan it always amused me that you could buy such a quick car for a country where it was hard to get above 30mph.

My mate blagged a test drive once in Tokyo and never got about 60

[JPM]

Middlehurst Nissan down the road from me, the only UK official importer/tuner.... they have some very nice examples, and tuned to the nines