I have read a couple of comparos in my motorcylist magazine regarding gsxr1000 vs corvette z06. The driver is a pro bike racer and a pro race car driver. The gsxr1000 won easily.

Now on the other article. It was Nicky Haden driving an F1 car (i think) and one of the Andretti's is riding Nicky's race bike. The F1 car won easily.

I myself ride a bike and I can tell you that I can drive my Z a heck of a lot faster than my R6. I am a poor rider I guess

 

For the most part...put me on my bike (TL1000R) next to any street car and I'll win. Put me next to a dressed up Supra and it'll have me for breakfast. But more often than not, I will leave everything short of the Mclaren behind me. My point was only in saying that you can MAKE a car better any bike. It might take an F1 car, but it will be better. On the streets, the bikes will beat out even your average souped up car though. A great driver in the Z would still not even be remotely close to a average motorcycle rider in just about every case.

 

I think the difference is how hard you push the bike. Before I did a track day, I was way quicker in a car, since you have so much more room for error. Now that I've been to the track on a bike, too, I can ride it way quicker, since I have so much more road to play with then in a car and can take better lines, and the bike is just flat out faster.

Regardless of which is faster, I believe it is much easier to use up a car's limits thana bikes, but you don't usually have to be near a bikes limit's to be faster than a car at its limit.

 

Average Joes? The average Joe typically doesn't buy high performance machines. Even if they do, you can expect only average performance from either machine. Secondly, we are discussing street cars and street bikes, correct? Then good luck to all the cars out there. I've been riding bikes for the past twelve years and I've owned numerous sports cars during the same period. When I wanted to go out and "push the envelope" and get a rush, I had the keys to the bike in my hand.
Simple physics demand that a bike will dismantle any car in straight line acceleration, regardless of who the rider/driver is. The horsepower to weight ratio of a liter bike today is roughly .40 or higher, while a sports car is, at best, .20 (a 2003 Viper boasts a ration of .15) Any body can sit on a bike and twist the throttle and hang on just like anyone can sit down and mash the gas pedal. Fact of the matter is, the bike will walk away from the car. As for twists and turns, I guess that depends on on how fearless the pilot is! Expect four wheels to grab better than two, so the car has an inherent advantage here, however the car cannot dynamically adjust approach angles to maximize the contact patch of it's tires. A bike can take advantage of centrifugal force by leaning into a turn forcing the tires to squat slightly which will increase contact and thus maintain, if not increase, grip throughout the turn. Both vehicles will eventually lose grip, but again, given the weight advantage of a motorcycle, inertia will have it's way with the car before it affects the bike.

 

Amen

 

I vote this for the "most disoriented Hijacked thread"