It’s law: Cars may be fast, but bikes are faster for the money. Sure, two wheels lose cornering grip relative to four, but a $3,500 Suzuki Hayabusa will match a Bugatti Veyron in the quarter mile — straight line speed goes to the bikes. Electric power, though, is starting to even that equation: Now you’ll only need a Porsche Taycan or Ferrari SF90 to match a high-end literbike.
Carwow tested a Yamaha R1M, a $27,699 motorcycle with nearly the horsepower of a first-generation Subaru BRZ, against a $230,123 Porsche Taycan Turbo GT and a $465,318 Ferrari SF90. Both cars make four-digit horsepower, five times the dyno peak of the 200-horsepower Yamaha, yet in a series of races the victor was only determined by launch grip on wet British asphalt.
Beating a $28,000 Yamaha with a $465,000 Ferrari may sound pyrrhic for the four-wheeler, but it’s actually a meaningful step in leveling the playing ground. After all, the Veyron that it once took to match a Hayabusa cost well over $1 million at its launch — compared to that, the Ferrari is a steal.
That R1M can hit the quarter mile in 9.8 seconds with good traction, making it one of the quicker production bikes out there. You can find faster cars, sure, but you won’t find them for cheaper — or even close to as cheap as that little Yamaha.
Electric power, with its instant torque, is ever so slowly democratizing those ultra-fast quarter mile times. Maybe, with enough development, we’ll hit the point where cheap cars can finally match expensive bikes for speed.
