Guy Martin can talk; of that, there is no doubt. But with his knowledge of engineering, his vast experience of riding so many different bikes, and his endlessly curious mind, listening to him is never boring.
For the second instalment of our two-part series, the truck mechanic and record-breaking TV star brewed another mug of tea, showed us round his garage, and ended up talking about everything from Manx Nortons to the collapse of the British bike industry.
“The Manx Norton. I mean, how long did that bike dominate for?” Guy says, the admiration clear in his delivery. “What a bike. I read a magazine called Race Engine Technology and it very, very rarely does features on motorbikes, because it’s all about cutting edge technology. But there was a feature on some of the most efficient engines ever built, and the Manx Norton was right up there in the BMEP charts.
“A BMEP (Brake Mean Effective Pressure) number is an overall number that indicates an engine’s overall efficiency. It takes all the engine details into account – engine size, peak bhp, peak torque, whether it’s got a turbocharger or whatever- and calculates one number that accurately measures an engine’s efficiency. It’s like assessing a boxer on a pound-for-pound basis. The Manx Norton’s engine is still well up there in the list of most efficient engines
