Speed: How to Make Things Go Really Fast by Guy Martin
I have infinite respect for the most Northener daredevil Guy Martin, not because of any of his antics in a vehicle, but for a single interview at a MotoGP round:
That incoherent babbling of a man surrounded by technology, being disappointed by the limitations and yet excited by the bespoke design is why I want to sit down and talk to him one day. Not in any sort of discussion, I just want to throw a question at him like, "what sort of fork angle do you prefer?" and hear him navigate a meaningless question by diving off on a tangent about handlebars and chassis design and tyre sizes. I know next to nothing about bikes, I just assume he'd go off like that because if I was asked a similar question about a car that's how I'd handle it. And in his position on a racing grid, I'd be behaving the same.
Positivity about how Guy is fantastic frontloaded. Now for negativity.
I recently finished this book I had laying about. I assume it's based on a TV Show of the same name, but I refuse to look out of distain. It starts off well enough, explaining the process of breaking the cycling speed record record, talking about design decisions, the build process, and even some history of the sport. There's simplistic, scientific explanations of phenomenon throughout the book, such as drag, or lift. It's presented well enough.
The next challenge is the human powered flight speed record. Slightly declining quality and declining success at the challenge.
Then aquaplaning a motorbike across a lake. All good so far, although this is a whole lot more vibes based as a challenge than the previous set in stone goals, it's still an entertaining read.
Finally, the sledding speed record. And maybe my cryophobia made me a little antsy about focusing in on this challenge, but the actual bounds of the goal didn't come across as clear. Other people had gone down a hill faster on things called a sleigh. But still. Then the book explains the difference between moving on ice and snow. It recounts the development and training process. And then the book ends. The summary of the final paragraph is, "I'm really excited for it to start snowing so I can use the carbon fibre super sled you've just spent the last 50 pages reading about." It's ridiculous.
/rant