Speed: How To Make Things Go Really Fast

Guy Martin, lorry mechanic, motorcycle racing legend, and favorite of the Isle of Man TT, lives for the buzz he feels racing his bike around terrifying bends at 200 mph. Nothing, he claims, can match it. Or can it? Guy is about to find out. . . Guy faces four dangerous and thrilling speed record challenges, pushing the boundaries of speed, and his body, to determine just how fast one man can go.

Together with the best of British engineering and design, scientific research, ground breaking technology, and a Gold-medal-winning athlete or two, Guy attempts to pedal a bicycle over 100 mph by using the slipstream of an articulated lorry; build the world’s fastest human-powered aircraft; hydroplane a modified motocross bike across a 2-kilometre lake; and become the fastest man on a toboggan.

Tying in with the Channel 4 television series, Speed offers the inside track—the feats of engineering, the science behind the speed, the history of the challenges, and Guy’s adrenaline-fueled, jaw-dropping attempts to break the records. How do you create an airplane frame that’s super light but safe enough to crash? What should you fill your bicycle tires with if common air will explode under the heat of 100mph speeds? And why is the shape of a peregrine falcon the ideal model for a toboggan?

Exploring aerodynamics, surface tension, friction, gravity, and ground effect, Guy discovers how and why things go really fast.