{"id":1916,"date":"2004-01-27T20:11:46","date_gmt":"2004-01-28T02:11:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/gazette\/2004\/01\/27\/more-power-guy-stuff\/"},"modified":"2022-02-14T14:36:20","modified_gmt":"2022-02-14T20:36:20","slug":"more-power-guy-stuff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/2004\/01\/27\/more-power-guy-stuff\/","title":{"rendered":"More Power (Guy Stuff)"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was thumbing through the new issue of Bicycling Magazine when a full-page ad for a motorcycle caught my eye. It’s not unheard of for motorcycle manufacturers to advertise in the human-powered cycling publications, although you don’t see Harley-Davidson buying any ad space…something about the wrong demographics\/lifestyle image\/etc. Harley riders don’t wear lycra, at least not in public.<\/p>\n

Anyway, this ad was for the new Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R<\/a>, a truly hot-looking bike if you go for that style. But it was the juxtaposition of these two phrases that really grabbed my attention: 184 horsepower, 375 pounds. I don’t know about you, but I find that astounding. That’s a pound\/hp rating of just over 2, and I don’t know of another production vehicle on the face of the earth that can match it.<\/p>\n

And, speaking as one who once hit 120 on a Kawasaki that wasn’t nearly as jet as this, I can say that I don’t really want to know what it will do down a long straight stretch of west Texas highway.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/div>\n

I did some quick research to try to find a way to put this bike’s credentials into perspective, and came up with the following table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Vehicle<\/th>\nHP<\/th>\nWeight (lbs)<\/th>\nPrice ($)<\/th>\nLbs\/HP<\/th>\n$\/HP<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
Kawasaki ZX-10R<\/td>\n184<\/td>\n375<\/td>\n10,999<\/td>\n2.04<\/td>\n59.78<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
McLaren F1<\/td>\n627<\/td>\n2,500<\/td>\n1,000,000<\/td>\n3.99<\/td>\n1,594.90<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Dodge Viper<\/td>\n415<\/td>\n3,345<\/td>\n70,000<\/td>\n8.09<\/td>\n168.67<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Dodge Durango w\/5.7 liter hemi<\/td>\n335<\/td>\n5,095<\/td>\n35,000<\/td>\n15.21<\/td>\n104.48<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Lance Armstrong<\/td>\n1<\/td>\n160<\/td>\n10,000,000<\/td>\n160.00<\/td>\n10,000,000.00<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

I just threw Lance in there for fun. Obviously, his $10 mil per HP isn’t accurate; the net present value of $10 mil per year for who knows how many years is going to inflate that number considerably.<\/p>\n

Of course, the McLaren F1 is the world’s fastest production auto, hitting just over 240 mph back in 1998. I don’t think it’s still in production, but there used to be one flitting around Midland.<\/p>\n

So, what’s my point? Well, if you have to ask, then you really shouldn’t be reading posts like this to begin with. The simple contemplation of man’s mastery of the mechanical should instill a joy and pride that leads to an unconquerable desire to go into the garage, don a welder’s helmet and bang on something with a hammer.<\/p>\n

See ya…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was thumbing through the new issue of Bicycling Magazine when a full-page ad for a motorcycle caught my eye. It’s not unheard of for motorcycle manufacturers to advertise in the human-powered cycling publications, although you don’t see Harley-Davidson buying any ad space…something about the wrong demographics\/lifestyle image\/etc. Harley riders don’t wear lycra, at least… Continue reading More Power (Guy Stuff)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[84],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rides","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1916"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1916\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7328,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1916\/revisions\/7328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}