Mountain Watch

[WTF]

1 hour ago, Derek Flint said:

I was here when both discussions on the corners took place, and can assure you that for neither, ‘getting a better lap time’ was part of the business case for spending considerable amounts of taxpayers money. Carrying on with tripe as you sometimes publish ( which is incongruous as you do post a lot of sense) is bizarre in the extreme. 

Unless of course, the Manx TT mafia were just bullshitting the police, who were the primary lobbyists for the work to be done?

there have probably been more crashes per year at windy corner since it was made safer than there were before it got changed, and the speeds are up because people think they can get round it faster !!  which they can in a physics sense, just not a skill one.

[Shake me up Judy]

Isn't it because the wind plays a bigger factor (Hence the name) now that it's a long sweeping bend ?

[Derek Flint]

The consequences of the collisions at Windy are now damage only/minor injury as opposed to the serious/fatal outcomes pre-works. 

[dilligaf]

So, what is your opinion Derek, on the major alterations to Snugborough, Quarry Bends and The Verandah ? 
Do you not think they were done for the racing ?

[Non-Believer]

1 hour ago, Derek Flint said:

The consequences of the collisions at Windy are now damage only/minor injury as opposed to the serious/fatal outcomes pre-works. 

Are there any figures available for that please Del, genuine question?

There are still any amount of RTIs at that corner, indeed I posted of one less than two weeks ago. But how much of the above is down to car safety design or indeed pure luck?

[Apple]

Regarding general speed limits why don't they put cameras in all the street lights.......

[Andy Onchan]

45 minutes ago, Apple said:

Regarding general speed limits why don't they put cameras in all the street lights.......

How many street lights are there on the mountain?

[Non-Believer]

26 minutes ago, Andy Onchan said:

How many street lights are there on the mountain?

Don't tell the DOI that.....they'll be up there with a bottomless budget, constructing another Celtic Array ....

[Derek Flint]

1 hour ago, Non-Believer said:

Are there any figures available for that please Del, genuine question?

There are still any amount of RTIs at that corner, indeed I posted of one less than two weeks ago. But how much of the above is down to car safety design or indeed pure luck?

There will be. And you are quite correct, other gains are made progressively in terms of vehicle safety, and luck persistently plays a part too!

[Derek Flint]

1 hour ago, dilligaf said:

So, what is your opinion Derek, on the major alterations to Snugborough, Quarry Bends and The Verandah ? 
Do you not think they were done for the racing ?

Before my time I think so not able to comment. 

[Max Power]

2 hours ago, Shake me up Judy said:

Isn't it because the wind plays a bigger factor (Hence the name) now that it's a long sweeping bend ?

It certainly can be, but it was the same before the changes..

2 hours ago, Derek Flint said:

The consequences of the collisions at Windy are now damage only/minor injury as opposed to the serious/fatal outcomes pre-works. 

Agreed totally, both Windy and Brandish had some terrible fatalities over the years on open roads and all year round too. Mainly people on the inside of the corners drifting into people travelling in the opposite direction on the outside of the corners.

1 hour ago, dilligaf said:

So, what is your opinion Derek, on the major alterations to Snugborough, Quarry Bends and The Verandah ? 
Do you not think they were done for the racing ?

What you have to remember Dilli is that these are bends on a main road, used by all sorts of traffic. All these areas were relatively easy to change as there were no houses etc built on the land required. As far as the racing is concerned, most of the riders actually preferred the original layouts! I never raced around the old Snugborough or Verandah but I certainly preferred the old Quarries, Windy and Brandish. On the other hand, I have been close to having an accident at Windy and Brandish due to nearly running straight on in my car. The 130 lap thing would be an added benefit but not the driving reason as it slightly devalues the achievement, in my opinion.

If you look at old photo's of the course, there have constantly been changes for traffic reasons. I think eventually there will be others, the 32nd is one area which springs to mind? That seems a particularly dangerous series of bends for drivers.

. 

[Non-Believer]

1 hour ago, dilligaf said:

So, what is your opinion Derek, on the major alterations to Snugborough, Quarry Bends and The Verandah ? 
Do you not think they were done for the racing ?

I can't remember when Snugborough was done but Quarry Bends was done over the winter of 1986 in time for TT87. The road used to be a far tighter entry right then left and went out where the layby now is. All this had the effect of greatly increasing speeds onto Sulby Straight.

The Verandah was done mid/late seventies (I think?), it used to more resemble the Mountain Mile and was edged with concrete fence posts, no run off or wide verge as there is now. Parlotti and Collins both met their respective ends up there with those posts, one wouldn't be surprised if that reprofiling was TT inspired?

[dilligaf]

55 minutes ago, Non-Believer said:

I can't remember when Snugborough was done but Quarry Bends was done over the winter of 1986 in time for TT87. The road used to be a far tighter entry right then left and went out where the layby now is. All this had the effect of greatly increasing speeds onto Sulby Straight.

The Verandah was done mid/late seventies (I think?), it used to more resemble the Mountain Mile and was edged with concrete fence posts, no run off or wide verge as there is now. Parlotti and Collins both met their respective ends up there with those posts, one wouldn't be surprised if that reprofiling was TT inspired?

The Snugborough major bend straightening was done soon after the big pile up on bikes in I think early 70’s. Weren’t the Production bikes started in groups of 9 for some reason. Could be wrong though.

[Max Power]

56 minutes ago, Non-Believer said:

I can't remember when Snugborough was done but Quarry Bends was done over the winter of 1986 in time for TT87. The road used to be a far tighter entry right then left and went out where the layby now is. All this had the effect of greatly increasing speeds onto Sulby Straight.

The Verandah was done mid/late seventies (I think?), it used to more resemble the Mountain Mile and was edged with concrete fence posts, no run off or wide verge as there is now. Parlotti and Collins both met their respective ends up there with those posts, one wouldn't be surprised if that reprofiling was TT inspired?

The Verandah was done in the winter of 71/72. Those concrete posts were put back into place and were the final nail in the coffin of the TT as a World Championship event when championship leader Gilberto Parlotti crashed and was killed after striking them. In the usual manner, they were moved down the valley for the next year.

[Non-Believer]

4 minutes ago, Max Power said:

The Verandah was done in the winter of 71/72.

That long ago? Wow....