Dear All.

My name is Peter Hindley, and I would like to offer my opinion regrding the TTXGP. I realise most of the discussion has taken place on IOMTT, but I can't register there (for some reason) and I'm too mad to wait !!. If someone can copy this over there, i'd appreciate it greatly.

I'll break it down into
"the meeting at the Hilton on Friday",
"Why the hell do we need the event"
and "bloody 2 strokes"

Thanks in advance for reading....................

"The meeting"

I was there. Sitting in the middle of the room with a clear view. I listened to John Shimmin who was refreshingly honest stating he was neither a TT fan, nor a Tree hugger, but recognised that the future could well be in this direction, and his interest was in publicity for the Island. Fair enough.
A bloke from a design company showed a 3D CAD model of his propsed entry. I AM a CAD design engineer, and although the model was clearly a concept, it would take a reasonable amount of thought to produce. Interestingly, the model had hub centre steering, and it is to be ridden by Ollie Linsdell. Ollie's father Steve rode a heavily modified Yamaha GTS with sucsess at the TT praising the Stability of the front end. Could be a smart Partnership.............I have SolidEdge (3DCAD system) at home, so if "Turbineman" would like to come round, I'll time him on producing something similar.

The bloke heading up the team was clearly sucsessfull and intelligent, but was NOT a biker. That was obvious. A lot of the people involved in this are new to bikes, coming from electronics or other industries.
Mr. Hussain spoke for around an hour, maybe less. He impressed me with his honesty and vision of the concept. He stated on several occasions that he DID NOT HAVE ALL THE ANSWERS as this is a ground breaking project. His background is consumer electronics, and yet forum members seem intent on picking holes in his lack of knowledge regarding the mechanics of marshalling, TT course licencing or the ACU blue book. How the hell would he know this stuff ?. He took questions at the end (brave move if you ask me !!)
Considering all the venom pouring from the forum, the questions revolved around safety concerns from what I remember and one regarding the overall carbon footprint of the event.
"rob77" stated that the race would run behind a car. At no point did I hear this from anyone. Mr. Hussain seems to want a race at as high a speed as possible. The team attending hoped for a 110 top speed and a 90 lap.

Why the hell do we need the event.
Oil is running out people !!.

We consume 3 barrells for every one we find.

The oil that is left is either difficult (expensive) to extract or in ecologically sensitive areas. E.g arctic.

Consumption is increasing fast. If you earn 20k, you are in the top 2% of the world's earners. The remaining 98% want our lifestyle too. They want to consume.

If we can agree that the above is true, then in 100 years time no one will race combustion engines. What about 50 years, 25 ?. 10..........We will make the shift at some point, so why not now ?.

One of the first car races in America (1890 odd I think) was between an electric, petrol and steam car. The electric won. So why did we persue internal combustion ?.
Steam cars too messy, take too long to warm up.
Electric. Limited range, heavy lead-acid batteries, and a long charge time.
Petrol. Fill up at the next station, the fuel is universal between manufactures, so we developed petrol engines which are only 30% efficient !!.

Technology has evolved. Electric motors are 98% efficient and super-capacitors can be chaged up almost instantly. The range issue is still there, but development will see improvements. The tipping point is within sight.

Why should the Isle of Man not be first to market and provide a platform for development ?.

"Bloody 2 strokes"

I love em. I have 8 motorcycles, 1 is a four stroke. 3 are grand-prix bikes. I still race 2 of them I feel qualified to speak.

So, "Kwakaman" and all the others here are some facts for you:-

YOU CAN STILL RIDE A TWO_STROKE AT THE TT !!!!!!
I stand to be corrected (and sincere apologies if I am wrong, someone please correct me) You can ride a 250 in the 600 class, Maybe even 500 in the Senior (definatly not sure about that).

So why don't we have a class for 2 strokes ?.

1. It's a technological cul-de-sac. Emissions legislation has killed them stone dead. On the road, motocross, road racing everywhere. Oil in the petrol you see......Manufacturers can't sell them therefore don't develop them.
2. They are expensive. Most riders are not sponsored. A lightly tuned 600 will go 2 seasons on an engine. Grand-prix 2-strokes require a ring at 100 miles, piston a 250 miles, and a crank at 500 miles. cylinder at 1000 miles. So at the TT, 16 laps (4 race, 12 practice) 40 miles a lap = 640 miles. That equals 6 rings (£72) 3 pistons (£360) and 2 cranks (£190 exchange) A total of £632
N.B these costs are for a 125. AT LEAST DOUBLE THEM FOR A 250.

PLUS all the costs of running the 4 stroke as well as gaskets and time taking the bloody thing apart every night.

3. You can't actually buy one. Yamaha sold 12 (Twelve) 250's last year worldwide and no 125's. Honda sold quite a few 125's and no 250's. After next year you cannot buy a grand prix 2-stroke only lease one from aprilia or KTM at huge cost.

How the hell can you have a race series for bikes you can't buy ?.

This is why we have predominatly 4-stroke production based racing.


In conclusion.

I belive the TT will stagnate and die if we don't do something. People are always complaining of "same race 4 tmes" , and yet when you are offered something totally different you pull it apart ?.

Mr Hussain WILL hold this even somewhere, so why not here ?. Is HE the right man for the job ?. I am not sure, but he DID put his head up and try to do something positive. At least give him the chance to cock it up !!.

Lastly to "sticky" and I quote "if this is what motosport and the TT is going to become then maybe it would be better to let it end "...............I care more about the future of the TT than that !!. you seem so passionate about kicking the TTXGP (truly awful name)concept, but obviously don't support the TT at all.

At the moment the race is one lap, and if you are all right,the spectators will leave in droves and the bikes will race to the sound of tumbleweed. You have nothing to fear. It will be same-old-same-old again in 2010 and we can look forward to another 100 years of the internal cobustion engine.

Can't we ?