Friday 1st June 2012

Brit biker sets new 'ring record

What does a 7min 10sec bridge to gantry 'ring lap look like on a bike? Scary...

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There's a new, if unofficial, lap record around the Nurburgring, and it's been set by a resident British biker called Andy Carlile. Lapping the Nordschleife in just 7min 10sec bridge to gantry during public hours, he's nearly 20 seconds under the previous records set by Tim Roethig and Helmut Daehne. That translates to about 7min 28sec for a full flying lap or just 7min 24sec for an 'industry' or 'SportAuto' lap (that's a full lap minus the T13 straight).

Comes across as quite sensible ... and then

Riding his own modified Yamaha YZF-R1, Andy set the lap only a few days ago during a quiet public session. His bike is road-legal, shod with Dunlop road-legal trackday tyres and lightweight carbon wheels. Brit suspension experts Nitron helped Andy set up the suspension.

"It's taken nearly five years to get to this point," says Andy. "Some years there was practically no progress whatsoever, but I kept plugging away, optimising, learning and trying again."

Asked if he could go any faster he says, "What you're all thinking, and what I'm trying to ignore, is the number '6'. Yes the bike will go a little bit faster, but we're plumbing the deepest depths of diminishing returns."

For more on how Andy did it check out the interview on BridgeToGantry.com.

Track pic: Frozenspeed

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Watch the (utterly terrifying) lap video here:

 

[Liquid Knight]

Very well done. The state the track is in and traffic I'd use a Paris Dakar Spec TDM instead of an R1.

[Liquid Knight]

I hope a variation of the new Norton race bikes make it on the road. Nothing as radical as the Nemesis (but that would be awesome) how quick the track bikes have been in testing I think it would be a serious contender as a road bike.

How long do you think it will be before a road bike cracks a six minute lap time?

[Liquid Knight]

Wasn't there a ten minute lap on an Aprilia RS125 a while ago?

[Liquid Knight]

Biker's Nemesis said:

He wouldn't be any faster. With bikes its all about knowing your machine, jumping on a Panigale he may be faster after a while but it would take a lot of time.

I'll have to disagree with this one. Mike Rutter was sat on a new Norton Commando doing laps around the Isle of Mann's closed circuit making people on track day bikes look daft.

It was on the telly box some bikers travel show on BBC3 so it could have been staged but on the unlimited stretches of road he disappeared just as easily on that as he would any other bike.