High Performance Road Cars VS Bikes.

[kyleighgleason]

There are a number of TV shows/magazines that seek to compare road cars vs bikes on track,
& any number of youtube clips of loose public road contests between cars & bikes..

Having done a bit of fanging of both, my view is.. bikes win, if the rider has skill & is bold enough..

A very expensive/powerful car with downforce/sticky tyres/carbon-type brakes may have more of a chance,
but - if there is much slower traffic about, forget about it..

[Scorpaguy]

F1 car vs Moto GP bike on a typical circuit...4 wheels better than 2. Obviously a Hayabusa beats a Tercel....but similar tech and performance levels will favor the cars. Bikes do have the ability to gain initial speed more quickly...thus lots of low speed direction changes help the bikes, but safe money is generally on things you sit in...not sit on. My 2 cents.

[Andres125sx]

Another apples to oranges thread? Ok I´ll bite

With equal power/weight ratio cars are faster, period, but for a car to have equal power/weight ratio you need to spend at least 10x the money of the bike. But the thread title is High Perfomance cars, so that´s it

Cars corner considerably faster, or so much faster that they are on a different league (with downforce), as you can notice when comparing F1 vs MotoGP and see F1 laptimes are more than 20 seconds per lap faster. As a reference, difference between F1 and GP2 is a half of that, what means even GP2, wich is spec series, is much much faster than MotoGP, around 10 seconds per lap

OTOH bikes can do lines with higher radius wich depending on the corner might be a very big advantage, for example what for a car is a chicane (with short corners) for a bike might be almost straight, so anyone with a bias towards any of them can do a comparison where its favourite will win.

Also, road bikes are much much closer in perfomance to top level bikes (MotoGP) than road cars are to top level cars (F1). The comparisons we usually see are always with a bike wich is much higher in the perfomance scale than the car he´s competing with, or there would be no debate at all, and that does not provide clicks wich is the intention of any article/comparison

edit: I love bikes, I´ve been an MX racer (amateur) and I own a street bike, but reality is what it is. About the coment stating if the rider balls are big enough he will beat the car, I say the opposite, have any of you raced against a high perfomance car with a driver who really pushed the car to its limits?

[NathanOlder]

Pointless thread really, a quick search on lap times shows this, a GT3 car is faster than a Moto GP bike. Just looking and Marquez holds the record with a 1.59.4. The GT3 cars were in the 1.58's in the first result I saw.

Not sure why the original post talks about traffic ect ? its not a race on the road. A man on foot is much quicker than a superbike, if someone has locked a gate for the carpark where the finish line is.

Cars are faster than bikes, in pretty much every aspect. Circuit, on road, off road , straight line acceleration, top speed.

[Just_a_fan]

The thread title mentions road cars and [road] bikes. Hence traffic. High performance road bikes are quicker than high performance road cars in most metrics other than perhaps braking (the bike is limited by the weight transfer tipping the rider over the bars) on the road. This is especially true on narrow, twisty roads. This is because the bike can make use of more of its performance more of the time. One only has to watch bikers on the roads today to see they are able to carry much more speed, more of the time. And try following one when it overtakes a slower vehicle. It's past and back on the correct side before you've even decided to go.

[Big Tea]

On track, much is affected by track conditions. All things equal, on a reasonable surface I think it would take a very good car to match a mediocre bike in a short time trial. Slightly less in a one v one both on road at the same time and vieing for the position. At least if the rider has any sense . The thing is, even on a track day, how often do you get a perfect track? I have to qualify this by saying it is a considerable time since I did a bike track day


Not on track, but in normal use there is also the preparation time and the use it can be put to. It takes me around 10 min to suit up by the time I unbag the helmet clean visor etc get the bike out then hop on and a quick precheck. By this time, had I taken the car I could be upto 5 miles down the road. When I arrive, I have to de-kit. I can then return home with what I can put in my pack.

Against this is time saved in slow or stationary traffic and finding parking. This advantage seems to reduce weekly though. AS others have said,its apples and oranges/ you cannot compare

[Phil]

Having done a bit of fanging of both, my view is.. bikes win, if the rider has skill & is bold enough..

They usually end up dead.

In my experience, braking, most cars easily win, corners up to 80-100kmh easily go to cars, above and bike prevails. Any part of road where acceleration is key, obviously bike dominated.

Pretty much depends on the type of road and route. The more corners you introduce, the more the advantage is tilted towards car, other way around goes to the bike.

I know there is the mindset of bikers that nothing will beat them and that they are untouchable - and that may be true 99% of the time, but if they encounter a Lotus, super7 or something comparable, they’d be quite surprised at how much quicker they can be.

A super7 will destroy pretty much anything, even supercars, in cornering ability and in acceleration, some of the more potent versions like an R500, they are not far behind bikes.

[NathanOlder]

The thread title mentions road cars and [road] bikes. Hence traffic. High performance road bikes are quicker than high performance road cars in most metrics other than perhaps braking (the bike is limited by the weight transfer tipping the rider over the bars) on the road. This is especially true on narrow, twisty roads. This is because the bike can make use of more of its performance more of the time. One only has to watch bikers on the roads today to see they are able to carry much more speed, more of the time. And try following one when it overtakes a slower vehicle. It's past and back on the correct side before you've even decided to go.

Cars can corner and brake better than bikes, and I'm reading the Porsche 918 spyder can go 0-60 in 2.1 sec. And reading the fastest production bike is 0-60 in 2.3. So I fail to see where a bike is faster ? Only in traffic, when its not a race.



Heres a good video on some acceleration. 0-60, car. Top end, car.

[ncx]

Old stuff: Button F1 car vs motorbike drag race (you may skip to about 6'30").
I know, hardly a road car, offtopic

[CMSMJ1]

Bikes are fast for the money.

That's about it.

[Jolle]

Bikes are limited by their center of gravity, where cars are not, especially with downforce. Bikes, especially supersport bikes are limited around 1G of acceleration and braking and with extreme lean angles (as. in Motogp) around 1,5G trough corners.

[Big Tea]

Bikes are limited by their center of gravity, where cars are not, especially with downforce. Bikes, especially supersport bikes are limited around 1G of acceleration and braking and with extreme lean angles (as. in Motogp) around 1,5G trough corners.

I tried a bike with 2 front wheels that banks into the bend. Hated it. everything felt wrong and although I did not test it at speed I know I could not hack it. Is they added another wheel at the back it would be a car then, and probably cost the same as one too

[NathanOlder]

How can a bike have 2 front wheels? surely its a trike?

Might as well call it a car with 1 rear wheel.

i know what you mean though, seen a few of them on the road and they look very awkward to ride.

[Jolle]

How can a bike have 2 front wheels? surely its a trike?

Might as well call it a car with 1 rear wheel.

i know what you mean though, seen a few of them on the road and they look very awkward to ride.

trikes (and quads) don't lean in corners.

The Yamaha Niken and Piaggio MP3 are bikes, just with an extra wheel. But... more a gimmick in the Yamaha case and a "you can ride a scooter with a car license" with the Piaggio.

Somehow as a biker it feels that people on trikes and quads think that they are safer or something... their corner speed is even lower and more dangerous because of the very high cog in corners (and lack the stability of a motorbike).

[Big Tea]

How can a bike have 2 front wheels? surely its a trike?

Might as well call it a car with 1 rear wheel.

i know what you mean though, seen a few of them on the road and they look very awkward to ride.

trikes (and quads) don't lean in corners.

The Yamaha Niken and Piaggio MP3 are bikes, just with an extra wheel. But... more a gimmick in the Yamaha case and a "you can ride a scooter with a car license" with the Piaggio.

Somehow as a biker it feels that people on trikes and quads think that they are safer or something... their corner speed is even lower and more dangerous because of the very high cog in corners (and lack the stability of a motorbike).

I tried the mp 500 when I had a Majesty, I swear the Maj would corner 20% better than it. It feels really unstable. The only advantage I could see is parking on a steep hill, and for around double the cost, no chance.

TBH Though, anyone who has not ridden a good modern scooter of that sort probably has complexly the wrong idea of their capability. Not in the same class as a sport bike, but not bad at all.