20 Questions: Martin Brundle

Martin Brundle ITV's Formula 1 commentator

1. If you were a bike, what would you be?

Hayabusa. Fast but ugly.

2. Describe you in a word

'Honest'.

3. What's the most embarrassing bike you lusted over in your youth?

Honda 250 Super Dream.

4. What were you riding and where when you first topped 100mph?

Honda RC30 in Illinois, USA.

5. What should be the speed limit on a clear motorway?

90mph.

6. What's the fastest you've ridden on a public highway?

175 mph.

7. What's your favourite road?

Any in mid and north Norfolk.

8. What's the most you'd spend on a bike?

£15,000, although my son and I both like the look of those Confederates.

9. Who do you admire in biking?

Mick Doohan - a top man.

10. What would you do with your last gallon of fuel?

First a quick thrash through the sequential 'box in my M5, then most of it on a ride through Norfolk lanes, and the final dregs to set fire to myself. No gas? - it's all over.

11. What bikes would you buy if money were no object?

Like anything automotive, bikes must have a great engine. So in a dream world I would like four: a horny supermotard or naked streetbike for posing, a KTM traillie, a fully kitted 999, and a full-on tourer (but not a Boxer).

12. What's the maddest thing you've done on a bike?

I rode a Yamaha 500 GP bike around the Catalunya circuit when my only previous experience of motorcycling had been riding a Garelli 50 at age 16. Got me seriously hooked on biking though, which is the one thing my dad would never let me do since he fell off his Ariel Square Four so many times.

13. Have you ever spent a night in jail?

Assuming being handcuffed to the bed doesn't count then 'No' (see 2).

14. What's on the horizon in your field of work?

Formula One's 'Big Bang'.

15. What books are you reading right now?

I have got caught up in Dan Brown's imagination and intellect at the moment.

16. What's your proudest achievement?

Winning the '88 World Sportscar Championship and surviving 158 F1 GPs.

17. Do motorcycles inform your work and, if so, how?

Riding a bike is like motor racing. Wearing a helmet, senses on full alert, reading the road and weather conditions constantly, taking pain if you get it wrong, always able to improve your style and smoothness. So it keeps me focused on my work.

18. If you could switch careers, what would you do?

Helicopter or fighter pilot.

19. Are you paid enough?

Yes, I'm happy.

20. What would you like your epitaph to be?

'Good effort. Tried hard'.