The pedal, the power and the glory
The Brit cyclist breaking records in the slipstream of a Porsche Cayenne Turbo
“It’s like when the cyclists of the Tour de France tuck in behind each other, but a bit more extreme.” Except it’s not. It’s a lot more extreme. When 44-year-old cyclist Neil Campbell said that, with characteristic British understatement, he had just broken the European record for speed achieved on a bicycle. At 240 km/h. In the slipstream created by a Porsche Cayenne Turbo.
It’s not like Porsche doesn’t have form with this. Forty years ago, nearly to the day, Jean-Claude Rude tried to get his bicycle up to exactly that speed in a hole punched in the air by Moby Dick, the legendary Porsche 935 Turbo Le Mans racing car. Unfortunately, Rude got a puncture and crashed so the record was never broken.
The 3.2 km runway at Elvington Airfield in Yorkshire – built by the US Air Force in the 50s but operated this weekend for a Straightliners motorbike drag racing event – seems impossibly long. But not when you’re trying to get a bicycle, and the parachute-like rig needed for a record attempt like this, up to fairly senior autobahn speed before the smooth tarmac runs out less than half way down. This is where the 550hp Porsche Cayenne Turbo came into its own (Cayenne Turbo: Fuel consumption combined 11.9 – 11.7 l/100 km; CO2 emissions 272 – 267 g/km).
Formed from a mix of carbon fibre and 3D printed parts, Neil's bicycle has incredibly tall gearing, so he can’t actually pedal it under its own steam until it’s going fairly quickly and the car has to tow him up to about 175 km/h.
Driving the Porsche was Andy Frost – a British drag racing champion whose usual car is a 4,000hp, fire-breathing dragster called ‘Red Victor’. It was the driver’s task to remain in constant contact with Campbell and to ensure every stage of the runs occurred like clockwork to allow the best chance of capturing the record.
“It’s quite exhilarating, very intense. Off the line, we’re accelerating hard, then it’s the release and extreme physical effort, before the car pulls to the other side of the runway so I can slow down again out of its slipstream," explains Campbell.
“My fantastic team and I couldn't have done it without the Porsche – I'm still staggered that the Cayenne could have been so fast and so smooth. Everyone else who has tried to go anything like this quickly on a bicycle has had a lot more room, like the Bonneville Salt Flats in the USA, or long stretches of autobahn. Normally I can feel every gearchange, every dip and surge, but I couldn’t pick up any of that with the Cayenne. It was like being hooked up to a jet plane taking off.
“I’m an architect by profession, and lots of architects drive Porsches. Many also spend their spare time cycling. I suppose I might be the only one that combines both quite so closely …”
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