Ever in fine form, our favorite adrenaline junkie has taken on ANOTHER project involving speeds fit to blister your bunions – and this time, the hurtle to the horizon involves rotary power.
Guy Martin’s recent projects involve insane combos such as a turbo-charged Hayabusa set to break a 300mph record (for which we hear he’s currently at the front of the line with 260mph under his belt), as well as a 1200hp turbine-Powered motor blessed with the heart of a Rolls Royce Gem helicopter christened the ‘52 Express,’ ready to break our current land record speed.
So why rotary power?
For one thing, rotaries are practically immune to the kind of failure that causes nightmares for piston engine power; while a piston mechanism might seize up and cause all sorts of damage, failure in a rotary engine simply means a limited amount of power until the heart finally dies out (via NationalSpeedInc).
This perk is accompanied by wicked potential for torquey power, though every pro comes with a con or two – and in the rotary engine’s case, obscenely high oil consumption eventually led to the engines being banned from British racing in 1995.
“The CR700W is the latest incarnation of the twin rotor racer, developed by Brian Crighton with Norton in the late 1980s,” states an article from MCN.
“After dominating British racing in JPS livery in the early 1990s, it famously won the 1992 Senior TT with Steve Hislop then the British championship in revised ‘Roton’ guise and Duckhams colours in 1994.”
“After being banned…the bike continued to be developed by Crighton, first with Stuart Garner’s Norton and now new partner Rotron.”
Today, Crighton’s 700W means 690cc’s stuffed into a dry weight of under 130kg – more than enough power in the equations to get the job done, as long as you have the right rider for the job.
Rotron Executive Chairman, Gilo Cardozo, is excited to provide the bike to their customers, the last five of which will be clients from the UK – and that goal starts with breaking a speed record or two.
“We want to ensure it can do over 200mph so we’re doing tests now to work out what we need to do,” Cardozo, tells MCN.
“The first thing was to break the speed record for large rotary engine bikes which was 172mph…we’ve just done 188mph, [so] the goal now is to get well past 200.”
“We think we’re going to get past it quite easily…it’s all to do with gear ratios, fairings and things like that.”
“We’re going back in the next three or four weeks.”
We look forward to updating you on the results; if Guy Martin has as much say as we think he does, we’re likely to see a close contender for a number of records before the season is out.
Be sure to stay tuned via our shiny new webpage and ultra-popular newsletter, and as ever – stay safe on the twisties.