2010 BMW S 1000 RR vs. 2010 Bugatti Veyron 16.4

InsideLine does a very interesting comparison. This time it will be between the  world’s fastest car and the world’s fastest bike:  2010 BMW S 1000 RR vs. 2010 Bugatti Veyron 16.4.

Interested to know if the BMW S 1000 RR Superbike can take on one of the most expensive street-legal cars in the world? Well let us look at the other details first. Veyron is $1.3 million US dollars more expensive than the BMW S 1000 RR. For the horsepower, Veyron takes the advantage at 1,001 ponnies. The BMW bike runs at 190 hp. Top speed of the Veyron is 253 mph, while the BMW bike is at 191 mph. Let’s see if these numbers matter in the road.

Here’s an excerpt of Insideline’s article:

“But at this moment, we’re not worried about the numbers. All we can think about is the French supercar sitting behind us, buzzing like an impertinent bluebottle fly in the mirrors of the 2010 BMW S 1000 RR. And now it behooves us to unleash the BMW’s inner demon and show this, this insect of a 2010 Bugatti Veyron 16.4 the true, grand order of nature.

Transformers

A familiar plaintive wail rises from the very trick Akrapovic exhaust system of the BMW S 1000 RR and pow! the bike is gone. Wide open, the quick-shift system popping in sync as each gear goes home. Move! Move! Go, go, go! The speedo rattles through numbers as the RR flits between the trees like the ghost of BMW Motorsport — flick left, pick it up, pull it right, on the gas, work the revs. Nothing can live with this. Nothing.

It’s to be expected, because this is no ordinary motorcycle. The combination of 190 hp at 13,200 rpm from the BMW’s 999cc DOHC inline-4 and MotoGP-style electronic stability control have changed the expectations of what’s possible with two wheels and a headlight.

Of course, the car in our mirrors is no ordinary car. The Bugatti Veyron 16.4 is finally reaching the end of its production run after 295 examples of the French-built (though Volkswagen-owned) supercar have been built since 2005. Even the most car-phobic motorcyclist knows about the quad-turbo 8.0-liter Bugatti W16 engine and its ability to deliver 1,001 hp and a top speed of 253 mph (a Veyron 16.4 Super Sport with its 1,183-hp engine recently set a top-speed mark of 268 mph).

In fact, this particular Bugatti Veyron 16.4 isn’t being driven by a retired bus driver who has won the lottery but instead Pierre-Henri Raphanel, Bugatti’s test-driver and a well-known shoe at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. (We wish we could afford his jet-set tan.)

Performance Profiles

On paper it’s a close-run thing between the world’s fastest car and the world’s fastest street bike up to 140 mph.

In perfect conditions, BMW says the 455-pound S 1000 RR will get to 60 mph from a standstill in 3.0 seconds on the way to the quarter-mile in 10.2 seconds. You’ll find that 100 mph comes up in 5.3 seconds while the speed is all over at 191 mph. Sure, bikes like the BMW K1300S and Suzuki GSX1300R Hayabusa might get to 60 mph quicker, but no street bike is faster in a straight line than the BMW S 1000 RR.

Matched against this, the 4,410-pound Veyron 16.4 puts its turbocharged W16 to good use with a quick-shifting, dual-clutch seven-speed automated manual transmission plus all-wheel drive, so it gets to 60 mph from a standstill in the same breathtaking 3.0 seconds and finds the quarter-mile in 10.2 seconds. The 100 mph mark is reached in 5.5 seconds and of course the car doesn’t run out of steam until you get to 253 mph.

So in a straight line the car and bike are neck and neck off the start and up to around 140 mph, after which the Bugatti clears off into some netherworld of top speed where not even MotoGP bikes dare venture.”

Source: InsideLine