UK_Paul's - Slingshot Build & Other Adventures -

We are home now and so the next step is to look at the practicality of having the SlingShot.

You can see from the, image below; we have a small garage on the left of the picture.
This was built some time ago and is not wide enough to house a SlingShot.
The shaded area, behind the garage and small silver car is extremely steep, so much that it is not possible to dive a SlingShot up it without running the risk of taking off the front of the machine. After consultation with the technical department of Polaris Britain, it became obvious to me that this was going to have to change.

The conclusion was: knock down the garage, reduce the slope of the driveway, remove the hedge on the left edge of the picture, tarmac (in American English, I think you call it Asphalt) the lower area at bottom of the picture and place a bigger garage on it. This would have additional advantages for us, as it would make control of motorcycles, at the top of our drive, much more easy and also allow us generally more room for vehicles. It would also allow easy access, via the porch in the corner of the house. So why not also develop this area into a better entrance?
Oh well the cost of all this is going to be substantially more than that of the SlingShot.......

Who said this was going to be cheep?

Quote from gpcustoms

Nothing you cant do with a suit case full of Pound notes and two cases of beer

Only two?

The next thing to achieve was to see what one of these things rode/drove like.

Even though out road rules are almost identical and we drive on the same side of the road; I had been unable to take control of the slingshot myself, while in Ireland, as the dealer's insurance would not cover me in a foreign country. So my I now had to arrange a test drive.
Then a few days later I spotted this on FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/42596…3/489888947880374/?type=3

Competition Time!! Please like and share this post
for a chance to win a test drive in the Polaris
Slingshot on Friday 8th July at Mallory Park.Winner will be picked on Monday 4th July

Well I liked it.

The next question that most of you are likely to ask is:
What is Mallory Park?

Mallory Park is a motor racing circuit and was first used as one in 1949
- Mallory Park - Wikipedia -

Throughout the Sixties and Seventies, the circuit hosted almost every major British car and bike championship.

It is still used for both car and motorcycle racing but does not feature, the top line competitions any more, (apart from "Motorbike & Sidecar" racing).
Would I win this competition and find myself racing a SlingShot around the track?

The odds look good:

Only 20 other people entered. At least 2 of them worked for Polaris and 3 lived outside the country.
So the odds now stood at about 15:1 (if they were not included).

July 4th came around...

I'd won the place at Mallory Park!
The next thing would be. How would my health hold up? I had been slowly improving, but most mornings started with me vomiting and I was still spending a lot of time just sitting (or more often laying) around totally exhausted. My energy was very low. My kidneys were still giving me the most problems, as my general fitness, prior to getting ill had helped me through the illness.

At this point, the doctors had generally agreed that I must have been attacked by a virus. This had caused the organ failures and some had improved, while others had detreated. My hart had recovered and my liver had started to repair itself. The pneumonia had been cleared up, some time earlier and now the worst remaining problem was with my Kidneys, (only 50% function). Some days were good and some days were bad.

The day of the event came around and I felt good. I set off early, so that I would not have to rush, took lots of breaks along the way and arrived in good time for the event. I ensured that I was fully rested and felt fit enough to take part before entering the pits, at the track.

The SlingShots were there along with some press men and photographers. I knew some of the people attending and it was good to make contact with old friends. Andy, from American-V magazine was there and about to set off around the track. Andy produces a tremendous mag covering (as the title indicates) American V engine motorcycles. He now also has a keen interest in the SlingShot and has covered it in the magazine a couple of times.

A black turbo SL was also in attendance, but the authorities at the race rack had to stop it from using the track, as (apart from race days) the track has a noise restriction and the SS + turbo, quite happily exceeded this limit.

The distance at Mallory, around the lap, is quite short at, just over, 1.3 miles (2.1 km).

A couple of SlingShots were already heading off around the track. I registered and signed up with the standard Polaris terms and conditions, for taking out a Polaris vehicle. Then I met up with Steve Caine. He is contacted by Polaris to do the publicity/marketing for them.

Steve and I knew each other, quite well, from meeting him on many occasions at Polaris, Victory' meetings, over the years. (You'll also see his name in the "Like" section of the previous Facebook picture, 3 posting above this). Steve was one of the guys, helping by taking people out to show them the ropes, with driving SlingShot. I knew he was a dam good motorcycle rider on a Victory and he agreed to take me for a run before riding taking to the controls myself.

As I said, Steve and I knew each other, of old, and I felt that he would not hold back on showing me what the SS could do... and he didn't.
Steve could certainly drive the Slingshot well and he didn't mind throwing it around the track.

Next, it was my turn. We came out of the pits and onto the track, then very quickly we came into "Gerard's". ( Some of you piston heads may recognise the name of Gerard's Bend). This is a large sweeping bend and it was to take a couple of laps to find the right line, as you leave the bend there is a slight reverse camber that unweights the front of the SlingShot, this was a little un-nerving at first but once I'd experienced it a few times I became much more comfortable.

The next interesting part of the track was "Edwina's" This is a chicane and demonstrates how well the SlingShot can switch directions and also how to drift it while keeping the power going. Coming out of this section, you enter the "John Cooper Esses." (Yes I spelt "Esses" correctly). This has a slight positive camber that lets you drive hard into it and therefore come back onto the main straight again, with some decent power behind you. It is along this section that you can reach the highest speeds. I know that I'm certainly not the best driver of a SlingShot, especially as this was my first ever attempt at driving one but it certainly shows you how well they can handle. Time for a short break and a good cup of tea.

More information and some "Hot News" to follow next.

Quote from MiM

Ooohh... Hot news...

It's all to do with something that was not spoken about due to a, very direct, conflict of interest and I was certainly not going to be the one to let the proverbial cat out of the bag.

However this is no longer the case and can now, safely, be revealed.

I just hope that Leigh Hauck, Polaris, marketing manger of the SlingShot, checks out these threads, just in case he isn't already aware.

This has nothing to do with the upcoming "Hot News" but, if you like British Petrol-Head TV, you may be interested in what will be announced soon.

- #Top Gear -

Quote from UK_Paul

More information and some "Hot News" to follow next.

It was now time to take the SlingShot, back out, for a few more laps. The runs were great fun. I learnt a lot and I noticed that I'd managed to hit just a little under 100 mph., at one point. That was not too bad, considering the small size of the track. Nonetheless; some of the other people attending were definitely achieving higher speeds. (Sometimes, you just have to recognise your own limitations and get on with it).

The day was moving on and it was late afternoon. All the demonstration SlingShots had now come back off of the track and pulled into the pits.

Time for a few posh pics'.

But...
There was still one SlingShot out on the track. And WOW, It was sure moving quickly!
What the f#%£ was that?

The SlingShot was moving very quickly around the Mallory race track. It drove through, the chicane at, "Edwina's" as if it was hardly there! As it came back along the straight it was running much faster than anything else had, all day long.

This was very, very gooood indeed!

After a few laps, at breakneck speed, the SlingShot finally came in. It was a Red 2016 SL, with no modifications whatsoever. It had joined the circuit just as I had returned, to the pits. The rider/diver got out and removed his helmet and he spoke with a Spanish accent...
I had no idea who he was.

Our conversation eluded to the fact that he had regularly attended the race circuit, in the early evenings, for a quick spin around the track, in his beloved SlingShot. (Steve Caine later told me that) This guy had also taken his own Lamborghini around the track and had said the SlingShot was by far the more exhilarating.

So why was this guy not too keen to have people know who he was. Well; he worked for Yamaha, at that time. This gave him a direct conflict of interest as Yamaha & Polaris both make competing ATV's (All Terrain Vehicles) and this man could not be seen to be riding a SlingShot, while working for Yamaha.

That may all be fine, but what was his job? He is a three-time MotoGP™ World Champion!
The man in question is "Jorge Lorenzo." I'm not sure how popular this is in north America but; for motorcycles, it is the equivalent of F1 motor racing, with a huge following around the world. Mr Lorenzo is without doubt one of the two best racers in the world! (The other one is his old team mate Valentino Rossi).
- Jorge Lorenzo - Wikipedia -

Well this guy certainly knows his stuff and it shows. Now, after nine years with Yamaha, he has made a move to the Ducati Team. No more conflict of interest so. Perhaps the guys at Polaris should now be taking a look at what they could do, to capitalise on this?

Jorge Lorenzo is not shy to try a few thing and you may also be interested to see him pushing a Mercedes F1 car around the track too.

Check out the link below:
-

Times are now changing, for Jorge, he can now talk about his SlingShot and he may even has a little room left on the new bike for some advertising.

The ROC (Race Of Champions) certainly looks slow when comparing it to how this man can put his SS around a real track. Even if they do try acrobatics with them in the ROC..

-

He can do that too, when he try's too hard.

The journey back from Mallory, was OK however the day had worn me out and the sensible thing to do, was to stop for a rest. 3 hours later I continued home to tell Elaine all about it.

When I got back home, Elaine was keen to know how I got on. I explained all about the day and how much I had enjoyed it. The general conclusion was very positive, however, given my prevailing health problems, we both agreed that if I detreated further, then I would not be me driving/riding the thing and Elaine was going to be the person that should be, the one, comfortable with it.

Next move; was to arrange a test drive, for Elaine. At this point in time, Elaine spent most of the working week, in London and returned (the 200 miles) to our home in Herefordshire, every Thursday evening, then she worked from home (all day) on the Friday. This was going to make life difficult, as the dealer that we had first spoken to was over the sea, in Northern Ireland and the dealer that had arranged the track day at Mallory Park was approximately 100 mile away from our home. Elaine, understandably, did not wish to spend all of her time traveling backwards and forwards to do a 15 minute test drive, in the SlingShot.

I first talked with Steve Cain (see above postings) about getting hold of one to test drive and we were hopeful that this could be organised, as I knew he sometimes attended a local customer, for Polaris "military" vehicles. I highlight that he had never revealed this to me; but I did tell you all that I'm good at finding these things out and after all, to this day, he still doesn't know what my job is. He had said he'd try and bring one over when he was visiting the area. However nothing ever came of this and I suspect that Polaris UK would want the distributor to arrange this sort of thing.

I spoke with the dealer, that had organised the day at Mallory and asked about the possibility of getting hold of one for the weekend, if I picked it upon the Friday and returned it on the following Monday. We decided that this was a good move as it could then appear on the driveway, at home and I could give Elaine the keys, saying "You've got it for the weekend." I was aware that this dealer was working with the same local customer, so I hoped something could be arranged, without too much difficulty.

Time progressed and it became apparent that when I was free to collect it, the SlingShot was never available, as it was off at shows or the dealer was not around. Conversely either I or Elaine weren't available when the SlingShot was. This was all getting very difficult...

Things then went from bad to worse. The virus that had caused all my health problems, earlier in the year, returned with a vengeance!

Quote from MiM

I liked the majority of your post... Not that last paragraph though...

The Hospital staff were now getting to know me and I was given this by one of the nurses.

So the next chapter in this story had now begun.

I had, recently, been feeling more unwell and had continued to go down hill, a disabling pain in my abdomen was increasing as each day passed. One morning, at about 03:00 hrs. after another night without sleep, things had got so bad my wife, Elaine, called for an Ambulance.

I'm normally pretty resilient to pain but this was getting unbearable. The majority of the pain appeared to be coming from my Prostrate Gland. When the ambulance arrived, I was unable to get downstairs without some major help. Being the morbid sort of person' that I am I had taken a selfie video of myself in the washroom, (more of that later) and no I'm not going to post it on this thread. In addition to all of this, we live out in the countryside and you may recall that we had decided that a new drive would be required to get the SlingShot up to our home. Therefore the same problems also applied to an Ambulance, so I had to get myself down to it, from the house.

Success... Into the Ambulance and we were off to the Hospital. I was admitted to casualty and the staff started relieving the pain. Starting with Parocetomol + Codeine Phosphate, followed by Morphine tablets, then some Orimoph liquid... None of this was working so it's on to the Pethidine injections. After three times the normal amount of Pethidine had been administrated, I was finally starting to relax. Still in pain but, when it did all finally kick in, I felt rather good.