[Video] This Isle of Man TT chin cam is savage | GRR
Prepare for the ride of your life. This is Peter Hickman aboard a BMW HP4 Race, a 215PS (158kW), carbon chassis superbike, on the Isle of Man TT course at sunset. The video, recorded with a camera on the chin of Hickman’s helmet, is as beautiful as it is shocking, the speeds unfathomable.
If you don’t know who Peter Hickman is, and why he’s so comfortable on a motorcycle clearly trying to break the sound barrier, he’s a British Superbike rider and, perhaps more relevantly, a three-time Macau Grand Prix winner, a two-time North West 200 winner, a 13-time Ulster GP winner and a nine-time Isle of Man TT winner. He also holds the record for the outright fastest lap of the TT course, with a time of 16 minutes and 42 seconds at an average speed of 135mph.
The bike he’s on, meanwhile, the HP4 Race, isn’t just insanely powerful but incredibly light, too, weighing 10kg less than Hickman’s BSB contender at 171kg fully loaded with fuel. It’s also a track-only, limited-run creation, with just 750 built, and its wheels? They’re also made from carbon-fibre. Consider the fact a hot hatch weighing 1,000kg with 215PS would be fun and quick, and that makes what Hickman does all the more unbelievable.
The way the bike kicks on, even in fifth or sixth gear at 160mph-plus, just doesn’t make sense – the acceleration is just relentless. What’s more, Hickman isn’t just dealing with the bike’s speed, he's got the sun sitting super low in the sky to deal with too. As Hickman explains at the very start of the video, there were a couple of corners where his visor blanked out entirely. And yet he still did a ‘gentle’ lap of 19 minutes and nine seconds at 118mph, pulling wheelies…
Isn’t it just amazing humans can do this? And isn’t the Isle of Man just so beautiful?
Welcome to Goodwood Elevenses, a mid-morning helping of motoring-related amusement to help break up your day. Watch the last video: Pulling 3G in an Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR Pro at Laguna Seca