2007 Honda CBR600RR

When the original CBR600RR made its debut in '03, it initially appeared to have the all the ingredients for success. A completely new, more compact engine, a trick chassis with innovative rear suspension, underseat exhaust-the new CBR seemed ready for prime time.

Unfortunately, things didn't quite work out as planned. The competition was a lot tougher than Honda had expected, and while the CBR was up to par powerwise, it didn't hold any real advantage anywhere. But the Honda's biggest downfall was its weight; the original 600RR was almost 26 pounds heavier than its lightest competitors, a major shortcoming in a class where the power-to-weight ratio is hugely important due to all the entrants possessing similar power outputs.

The CBR saw some subtle but important changes in '05 that dropped a good portion of that excess heft. (In fact, for once a manufacturer fudged its advertised numbers in a good way, with the CBR actually dropping an impressive 16 pounds instead of the adspeak-stated eight pounds.) The engine also received a thorough massaging that resulted in a midrange power boost, in addition to minor chassis alterations that gave the Honda more-agile steering. It all added up to a narrow victory over the rest of the middleweight class in our '05 shootout ("Middleweight Smackdown," Apr. '05).

Standing still for even a moment in the hypercompetitive 600 category can be hazardous, however. Honda found out the hard way when the basically unchanged CBR fell off the top of the heap and hit the floor in the following year's middleweight comparison test ("The Gang's All Here," July '06). So for '07, Big Red reared back and launched the heavily revised version we got to sample at Alabama's Barber Motorsports Park last issue ("A New Dimension," Mar. '07). We covered all the technical details involved in Honda's extensive revamp of the new CBR600RR in that issue; the extent of those changes is pretty vast, so we won't rehash them here.

A Serious Diet
While blasting around the undulating layout of Barber's challenging circuit gave us a good idea of the CBR's performance at or near the limit, we were eager to bring the bike back to our offices and measure its performance in the less-rarified atmosphere of real-world street and canyon riding. After noting how light the new Honda felt at the track, we also wanted to put the 600RR on our own digital scales to see exactly how much weight was actually pared from the previous version, rather than rely on the stated numbers from our friends at American Honda (not that we don't trust them).

So first thing's first: Once we got the CBR back to our offices, we immediately filled the tank with gas, checked the oil and coolant levels and rolled the bike up onto our Intercomp digital scales. The result? An astounding 412 pounds wet, ready to ride. This puts the new Honda well below the previous class anorexic, the Triumph 675, which scaled in at 417 pounds topped off with fuel. It also represents an amazing 19-pound weight loss from the previous CBR, undercutting the 16-pound reduction listed in the Honda press kit, and even slicing just beneath the 18-pound claim American Honda stated back at the Barber intro.

This obviously is the result of a pretty substantial program of paring weight wherever possible on the machine, a fairly difficult endeavor when you're talking about today's sportbikes, which have already had years of R&D aimed at just that goal. And in the 600 class, where component designs are already shaved to the bare minimum, it's a major achievement.

Just where was all that weight shed? We listed many of the components that lost some mass in our First Ride story, but as you'd expect, it's the sum of a long parts list, with each part carrying small (and some seemingly minuscule) weight savings. We managed to get the list of parts and the weight savings for each from Honda R&D, and after the 3.7 pounds chopped from the engine and the 1.1-pound-lighter frame, the rest of the list reads as follows.

'07 WEIGHT SAVINGS
Rear wheel	0.2kg (7.05 oz.)
Rear sprocket	0.06kg (2.12 oz.)
Rear axle collar	0.08kg (2.82 oz.)
Rear tire	0.41kg (14.46 oz.)
Rear brake caliper	0.15kg (5.29 oz.)
Front axle	0.02kg (.705 oz.)
Front axle collars	0.27kg (9.52 oz.)
Front wheel	0.05kg (1.76 oz.)
Front tire	0.23kg (8.11 oz.)
Front brake rotors	0.2kg (7.05 oz.)
Front wheel bearings	0.06kg (2.12 oz.)
Front calipers	0.32kg (11.29 oz.)
Front fork	0.278kg (9.81 oz.)
Steering stem	0.177kg (6.24 oz.)
Swingarm	0.242kg (8.54 oz.)
Muffler	0.47kg (1.04 lbs.)
Radiator	0.234kg (8.25 oz.)
Fuel injection	0.121kg (4.27 oz.)
Front fairing (upper)	0.467kg (1.03 lbs.)
Front fairing bracket	0.499kg (1.1 lbs.)
Fairing (mid-section)	0.572kg (1.26 lbs.)
Fairing (bellypan)	0.435kg (15.34 oz.)
Fuel tank cover	0.384kg (13.55 oz.)
ECU	0.122kg (4.3 oz.)

That leaves a little less than a pound to be accounted for, which could easily be explained by some random pieces, such as a lighter tool kit or tire production tolerances.

Losing 19 pounds gains performance no matter how you slice it. And with the new CBR, it pays off handsomely.

Hummer H3

On one level, and one level only, the Hummer H3 is the best car of 2007. Because if you've got a blog to write, nothing else gives you as much to say as this car does.

Or gives other people as much to say. It arrived in the office and I got endless abuse from kind-hearted colleagues, who either just laughed or began wondering whether all sense and taste and decency had deserted me.

You see, the H3 - the baby of the range - isn't exactly cool in Top Gear's collective eyes. Some SUVs are, but this thing smacks far too much of George Bush and Arnie, or naff celebrities driving around in it simply because it's large.

But the reason I've been driving it is more scientific. You see, I'm convinced the H3 fills a genuine gap in the market, now that the Discovery has gone upmarket and posh.

Farmers and others of the like who regularly get a bit muddy don't have much choice for wheels these days. The Kia Sorento possibly, the odd pick-up, but everything else is too smart and expensive.

Except the H3. It's good off-road, relatively cheap and, as I discovered, very easy to clean. I had two wet dogs in it over Christmas, plus loads of people with muddy wellies, but all that cheap plastic which journalists slag off just wipes down. Looks as good as new now.

But there are things that stop it being snapped up by farmers. Chief of which is the engine. It's not as slow as I thought it would be, but rev it hard and it sounds like all the valves are about to make a swiss cheese out of the cylinder head.

And because it's petrol, fuel consumption isn't what it could be out of a diesel. GM needs to look at that badly if it really wants to sell more of these cars, which it must do if it bothered engineering it for right-hand drive.

But the final straw that convinced me that Hummer hadn't really thought about this car properly for what I reckon is an open market is that it doesn't get any mud flaps. Or at least I couldn't find any on the options list.

So, you clean it, drive down the road and it's as if you've just taken a trip through the River Ganges. All the mud spatters up the side, gets on the mirrors, gets in the door handles, generally gets everywhere where you don't want it.

Which is fine if you only drive it around clean urban streets, so I can see why they've done it because that's where GM has firmly aimed the H3.

Farmers aren't mentioned much in the marketing bumf. But there are much better cars for posing around town, much more socially aware cars for that too, but not much other stuff that'll do as a workhorse. Apart from anything else, I reckon I wouldn't have come in for so much abuse if the car was more honest about what it should be doing.

Volvo C70 2.0D SE

How much?	£27,995
On sale in the UK:	Now
Engine:	1997cc turbodiesel 4-cyl, 134bhp @ 4000rpm, 236lb ft @ 2000rpm
Transmission:	Six-speed manual, front-wheel drive
Performance:	10.3sec 0-62mph, 127mph, 46.3mpg, 161g/km CO2
How heavy / made of?	1721kg/steel
How big (length/width/height in mm)?	4582/1820/1400