A mate of mine let me have a thrash in his new BMW M3 (the V8 one!). We went around my favourite set of bends three times, each time faster as I got the feel of the car. There's no way on earth that I can go around there that fast on my bike..not even close. There's just sooo much rubber in contact with the road compared to a bike. I don't know what Gs it pulls but you feel like your head is going to snap off! To his credit, my mate never said a word during the corners, he was gripping the "Jesus bar" pretty hard though and commented that his hand was quite sweaty! Nice, but well out of my price range...



Between corners we can get up to greater speeds but a good light sports car can out brake and out corner a bike any day.

 

It sure doesn't seem like it. Maybe it's because we are so exposed and close to the ground, kind of like the go-cart effect. I guess a good comparison might be to compare the track times on a famous road course between superbikes and semi-production cars.

 

I know what you're saying about the feel, but I looked at the speedo when settled into a couple of nice even corners and I was way faster in the car. It's hard to be sure though because I'm sure I'm going through on / in both vehicles nowhere near their limit, although I'm used to my bike and had never driven the car before. I was a bit paranoid about stacking my mates car so I was holding back a bit. I think it really has to come down to the footprint of the tyres. On a bike there's bugger all surface area to grip the road but in a well balanced sports car there's heaps.

Maybe some of the crazies (meant in the nicest way )who go around the Nurbergring can shed some light about lap times??

I still prefer my bike whatever the results as you just can't beat them for "bang for buck" value!

 

We could probably do the math comparing contact patches vs. weight of vehicle with passengers to get a feel for the differences. Any volunteers out there?

 

I second that. I think I have it on all of my hard drives. Look it up joe, it's a good read.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N%C3%BCrburgring_lap_times

The quickest cars are quicker round nurburgring than the quickest bikes. However the average road going bike is quicker roand nurburgring than some fairly exotic cars.

 

Ask and ye shall receive. Thanks Dean0, that is great info. Wiki is frick'n amazing. One of these days it will be loaded into a gizmo wired directly into our brains. Then chat boards will look like two supercomputers playing each other at chess.

Well, for me, the moral is: "Joe, don't think you are superman!" I don't have the cornering ability of the best sports cars (or the new bikes for that matter), so the bike's limits (as well as my skill level) are quite finite. If it gets creepy, back off.

Didn't I already know that? No, I was b.s.ing myself into being bolder than I should be. What an ***.

Thanks, all.

 

Every bike vs. car on the track video I've seen shows the bike out accelerating the car down straights, and losing time in the corners. Generally the bike comes across the line first, but only because superior acceleration allows higher speeds on the straights. Of course, these were exotic cars, not F1, Cart, or Indy cars. The story might be different there.

 

I had not ridden in almost 20 years until a few years ago when I got back into bikes again. I've noticed over these few years that I have really gotten so much better at cornering than when I first got back on a bike. It used to feel like i was "wrestling" the Hurricane in the corners, but over time riding it has become much more natural and smooth. I amazed now at the speeds I can take some of the corners I encounter now, and thats not even pushing it hard.

What's weird is Im better at right handers than left for some reason.

 

I'm sure they did this on a program called Top Gear here in the UK , MotoGP bike Vs F1 car on a track and the F1 car won

The car has more rubber on the road , plus down force and more horse power against a road-going car a bike might win but not F1.

But I know which one I'd rather watch , give me a MotoGP race any day of the week!! Just 'cos F1 is faster , doesn't mean it aint boring!!