When people think of the fastest vehicle BMW makes today, they usually come up with the same answer: the M8 Competition. That may be true for cars, but let’s not forget that BMW also makes bikes.
The BMW Motorrad has been doing that for a long long time and learned a lot in the process. That’s why BMW is able to offer superbikes for those of you out there who prefer two wheels instead of four.
As we all know, bikes are faster than cars for a simple reason: the power to weight ratio. They usually have incredible amounts of power available per kilo, especially when compared to certain, heavy cars.
The video below wants to find out whether the new M8 Competition can keep up or even beat the fastest road-legal bike BMW Motorrad can offer, the BMW S1000 RR. Looking over the specs, things don’t look good for the car.
The M8 has 625 HP at its disposal but, when taking into account the weight it has to carry around, it all adds up to about 327 HP per tonne. As for the bike, its 1-liter 4-cylinder engine makes 204 HP.
Chip in the weight and you get a power to weight ratio of … drumroll please … 1052.7 HP/ton. That’s basically three times more than the car. However, the race is set up for a traditional 1/4 mile run. That means, traction will play a huge role here.
It’s unquestionable that the bike will be faster but it will require longer strips of road to get to unleash its full potential. On the 1/4 mile run, the car might have the advantage because is all-wheel drive and the weather wasn’t all that great either, with low temperatures affecting the grip tires could hold on to.
Nevertheless, this turned out to be a lot closer than I expected and you’ll see why in a moment.
