Yep and she nearly got him. :-).

 

 

Speedbee even overtakes the bikes, but falls just a little short.

 

Yeah... right:

 

Yeah, I wouldn't say a bike is slower in the corners; it just takes more skill and ***** to go as fast as in a car but it's a blast! I probably enjoy corners more on my bike than in the car.

Didn't they race a 458 Italia against a Ducati on the track? I'm pretty sure the bike won.

 

Exactly, rider makes all the difference

 

The Bike always wins unless the track is wet ... Here's the excerpt from the Willow Springs 458 vs Ducati done by MOTORTREND.. P.S. THE DUCATI WAS THE 1198S WHICH IS THE OLD BIKE... The new 1199 is faster in all regards, not to mention the new BMW S1000RR which is even faster. Please note the parts I have highlighted.

Ducati's beatdown of Ferrari at the dragstrip wasn't as much of a shock as the thrashing it delivered at the Streets of Willow. We thought for sure the short track's many tight turns would give the 458 the advantage. Look how wrong we were.

1. The flying laps start here, which means Bell and Rapp have the throttle pinned when they cross start/finish. That explains the top speeds of 112.8 mph for the Ferrari and 129.3 mph for the Ducati on the front straight.

2. Turn 2 highlights one of the 458's few advantages: four contact patches. Though the Ferrari's max grip is slightly lower than the Ducati's (1.26 g versus 1.29), the 458's average speed is 2.4 mph faster (36.4 mph versus 34.0 mph).

3. A gap starts to open as the Ducati cuts a sharper line toward the Streets' famous bowl. That's no lie; in the hands of a Pro like Rapp, the Ducati traces a lap that's 30 feet shorter than the Ferrari's at the finish.

4. Does the bowl's 20-degree banking give the Ducati an edge? It would appear so: The 1198S outgrips the 458 (1.58 g to 1.41) and manages a 5.8-mph cornering-speed advantage (45.7 mph to 40.0 mph).

4a. For much of the circuit, the two Italians race on a similar line except into the bowl, where Rapp stays wide. Bell has the 458 hugging the inside line throughout, which pushes him wider at the corner exit.

5. Already well ahead at this point, the Ducati absolutely crushes the Ferrari with a Vmax of 132.5 mph (to the Italia's 117.4 mph). That's the fastest back-straight speed Motor Trend has ever seen, and total annihilation.

6. In the "skidpad" sweeper before the finish line, the Ferrari manages to corner faster (36.7 mph versus 35.3 mph), but it doesn't matter.

7. If they had started side by side, the 1198S would already be at the finish line by the time the 458 Italia fully exits the last corner.

So, have we settled the ridiculous notion that "Bikes are slower in the corners"??? It all depends on the track, the rider, the corner and the bike. Bikes CAN be slower and they CAN be faster in the corners...

 

LOL, the first car I took on track was my old Dinan S2 M5. Whatever it looked like on the outside it was worse inside. As soon as you turned the wheel it wanted to spin. And she has to have a big brake kit, because the M5 had the worst brakes ever, one lap and to the floor soft every time. But they would never completely fail, just took forever to stop.

 

That's indeed the race I was talking about. The video is great as well!

I think the bottom line is that riding a bike fast just takes more skill than driving a modern car fast and that's pretty much what you are seeing in that Nurburgring vid; average Joe on a bike vs. a professional driver in a car.

 

 

You know Clarkson hates bikes, right ?

 

thats from, what 1995?

 

thanks for posting that. I notice the 1198 they used was the S model, not even the top spec Ducati at the time. Today's 1199r, or BMW S1000RR HP4 are significantly more powerful and a lot faster than this 1198S and they have modern traction control and quick shifters.

It's funny when someone who has never ridden a modern day SportBike makes uninformed blanket statements. Those of us who own both a modern day SportBike and a modern day sports car, have an actual basis in fact and reality for our informed and factual opinion. It also helps that I have raced both cars and motorcycles and know what they are both capable of.

For instance, at Laguna Seca, the lap record for a modern street car is a 1:33 and change, the BMW S1000RR does it stock, with the tyres it came from the factory on in 1:27 in the right hands... Massive difference. In my GT2, I was hitting 130 mph over turn one at Laguna (on Hoosier R6 tires which are not street tyres) on my S1000RR I'm hitting 153 mph.... And that's on Pirelli Diablo Rosso Corsas which are LESS sticky than the rubber my bike originally came with.

Turn one at Laguna is a TURN for those that haven't driven there. I think a 23 mph differential in that turn in favor of the motorcycle means that motorcycles aren't necessarily slower in the corners...

 

But wait Graham ! you don't know how to drive ! ( joking)

Graham is a FANTASTIC driver. He is one of the very few GT2 owners whom can actually drive his car 10/10s. Like car drivers, most motorcycle drivers cannot extract anywhere near 10/10s out of their motorcycle ( I see that a lot here on 6spo). That said, that is one hella fast ducati.

I hope all is well Graham. Lets meet up sometimes in the back roads !

 

All modern sport bikes are top racing machines with racing suspension. Comparing a street car to modern bike really isn't fair to the car. The way I look at car versus bike debate is really simple. MotoGp versus F1 both with top pilots. F1 demolishes Gp bikes by 15 seconds on all circuits.

Personally on my bike I am quicker on the straights. In my Porsche I am quicker on brakes and through tighter corners. On the whole on open track bike wins, on tighter tracks its the car.

PS. Clarkson hates both bikes and Porsches. And that was a standard street 911. As far as the modern bikes moving on... Stock for stock The R1 from 1995 is only 1.5 seconds slower from bmwr1000 on a former MotoGp circuit where I race bikes. And my "old" Lilly is a real slouch - only 2!