Speed: How To Make Things Go Really Fast

by Guy Martin

Guy Martin, lorry mechanic, motorcycle racing legend, and favorite of the Isle of Man TT, lives for the buzz he feels racing his bike around terrifying bends at 200 mph. Nothing, he claims, can match it. Or can it? Guy is about to find out. . . Guy faces four dangerous and thrilling speed record challenges, pushing the boundaries of speed, and his body, to determine just how fast one man can go. Together with the best of British engineering and design, scientific research, ground breaking technology, and a Gold-medal-winning athlete or two, Guy attempts to pedal a bicycle over 100 mph by using the slipstream of an articulated lorry; build the world’s fastest human-powered aircraft; hydroplane a modified motocross bike across a 2-kilometre lake; and become the fastest man on a toboggan. Tying in with the Channel 4 television series, Speed offers the inside track—the feats of engineering, the science behind the speed, the history of the challenges, and Guy’s adrenaline-fueled, jaw-dropping attempts to break the records. How do you create an airplane frame that’s super light but safe enough to crash? What should you fill your bicycle tires with if common air will explode under the heat of 100mph speeds? And why is the shape of a peregrine falcon the ideal model for a toboggan? Exploring aerodynamics, surface tension, friction, gravity, and ground effect, Guy discovers how and why things go really fast.

Genres: Biography, Science

256 pages, Hardcover

First published December 26, 2013

About the author

Guy Martin is publicly known primarily as an English motorcycle racer, who also works as a lorry mechanic and TV presenter. He has mainly competed in road racing events such as the Isle of Man TT, Ulster Grand Prix and North West 200. Since 2011, Martin has also found success as the front man of several television programmes focusing on his passions of engineering, motor vehicles and speed.

Reviews

[Charlie Ronayne · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book decribing Guy Martins journey through his TV series Speed. The TV series was great and it was Guy and a team creating different ways of going fast and trying to beat records. This was a great way of documenting the many different sciences and activities behind this series.

[Toni White · Rating 4 out of 5]

would have been 5 stars if I didn't have to take to the internet to find out how the sled record attempt went as is was completely missing from the end of the book.