Ultimate speed machines and 5th gear on Channel 5 now

[dkmech]

Ultimate speed machines and 5th gear on Channel 5 now

[schrickvr6]

I'm a little suprised the bike didn't pull more of an advantage up to a ton, but i guess the whole thing was biased towards the car otherwise they would have used a 260bhp moto gp machine.

[dkmech]

I did wonder why they didn't use a moto gp bike. But the superbike had trouble staying upright as it was, so more power may not be the answer. What we need is top gear going one better and getting a moto gp bike against renault f1 car (with its superior launching system). I suppose if its BAR instead of renault you might forgive superbike instead of moto gp.

[Rave]

Apparently the bike actually started to pull back some ground once it got above 100mph as the car is considerably less aerodynamic thanks to all its wings, open wheels etc.

MotoGP bikes can pull 215+mph down the main straight at Catalunya (sp?) whereas an F1 car manages about 206. The car still laps a lot quicker mind.

Rich :¬)

[schrickvr6]

Apparently the bike actually started to pull back some ground once it got above 100mph as the car is considerably less aerodynamic thanks to all its wings, open wheels etc.

Please don't take this the wrong way but did you actually watch it? When they both got up to speed the F1 car visibly ripped it to bits.

[Rave]

Please don't take this the wrong way but did you actually watch it? When they both got up to speed the F1 car visibly ripped it to bits.

It was in MCN (or possibly one of the car mags, I forget) a month or so ago when the race actually took place. The car ripped past after 2-3s (so when they were doing 60-ish) but as far as I could tell the bike didn't lose much ground once it was already behind, at the end of the race. It was hard to tell from the way it was shot and edited on the program.

The bike only finished .4s after the car in the two races it lost, so it didn't lose too much ground, did it? It seems reasonable to me that the bike would beat the car in a roll on from 120, purely thanks to its superior aerodynamics.... The bike would have had a terminal speed over the quarter of 150 or more.

Rich :¬)

[schrickvr6]

I'm not sure what speeds they were doing but from the start up to probably 70-80mph they were neck and neck after that the car pulled a good 10-20ft every gear change, i'm sure if it was a moto gp bike it would have been a different story.

[dkmech]

Thing is, they can run very low wing levels in the drag race, whereas on a race track they have to compromise between downforce and drag - hence lower top speed on race track.