Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Rides : Motorcycles -Kawasaki ZX-10R lapping Nürburgring in 7m 50s is scary awesome

Kawasaki ZX-10R at Nurburgring screen capture



By now, we've all grown a little callous to watching high-strung supercars prance their way around the Nürburgring. Nearly every manufacturer has taken it upon themselves to do battle with the infamous road course, and as a result, YouTube is choked with videos of physics-bending cars doing what they do best. It's a little rarer to get to see a motorcycle take on the torturous course. Bridgestone test rider Tim Röthig recently mounted a Kawasaki ZX-10R, strapped on a Gyrocam and proceeded to wring the life out of a pair of Battlax tires.

Watching Röthig coerce the big liter bike through one of the most challenging road courses on the planet is a hair-raising experience, even from the comfort of our keyboards. While his 7:50-second time falls well short of the current 7:14 record for production cars, the knowledge that even the smallest of mistakes could have introduced both bike and rider to the unforgiving guard rail in a hurry certainly earns Röthig a spot in the pantheon of impressive Nürburgring videos.